Types of Stone used in Stone Foundations

Descriptions of typical foundation stones - ones to use and ones to avoid

...

Foundation Stone Choice: Driven by Proximity

In most parts of the world builders used whatever reasonably-hard stone was closest to the job site, since transportation cost is a significant factor.

But on occasion stones were moved from afar.

The bluestones used to construct the monolithics at Stonehenge (ca 1900 B.C.E.) are an igneous stone from the Preseli Hills over 225 kilometers (about 140 miles) away in western Wales.

The Stonehenge photos above and below are by Friedman and were taken in 1972.

Some of the authors whose work on the history of Stonehenge that we reviewed think that the stones were floated down the Avon river to get them to the Stonehenge site in the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.

So while it's true that sometimes special stones were transported great distances, usually stone structures used locally available stone for the obvious reason that stone is heavy and troublesome to transport. We make best use of what's close-by.

...

Building Foundation Stone Types / Names

Of the 3 broad classes of stone, igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary, the first two make best foundation material but some sedimentary stone too may be hard and stable enough to use.

Photo: the Balsatic Prisms of Santa Maria Regla, near Husaca de Ocampo, las prismas balsaticas in Hidalgo, Mexico, photographed by the author in April 2018.

These basaltic canyon walls are lined by tall vertical 5-sided or 6-sided polygons of basalt that range in height from just a few feet (at the canyon bottom) to 164 Sfeet high above the water level.

Popular for centuries among Mexican peoples the canyon was promoted among Europeans and tourists from the north following a visit to the site by German geographer Alexander von Humboldt in 1803.

Below our second photo gives a closer look at the pentagonal and hexagonal layered basalt columns while the author [DF] provides a reference of scale.

Popular types of stone used for foundation use include

• Basalt -
  
  (our favorite) is a very dark / black fine-grained volcanic rock, sometimes formed in a columnar structure.

Photo above: a closer look at the geometric form of the Balsatic Prisms of Santa Maria Regla.

• Gneiss -
  
  a "high grade" metamorphic rock that is banded, layered, or "foiliated" in structure, coarse-grained, principally made up of feldspar, quartz, and mica.
• Granite -
  
  a very hard granular, crystalline igneous rock widely used in building construction
• Laterite
  
  stone is formed by the weathering of igneous rocks in moist warm climates, or a clay-soil high in aluminum oxide and iron.
  
• Limestone
  
  (depending on the quality and hardness) - limestone is a hard sedimentary rock, principally Dolomite or Calcium Carbonate.
  
  Also see our discussion of cleaning stains from limestone at
  
  STONE, STUCCO & BRICK CLEANING METHODS
• Marble
  
  another metamorpiic rock, is metamorphosed limestone or dolomite, both of which contain a high concentration of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃).
  
  Marble is rarely as a building foundation or wall stone except where construction is close to marble quarries
• Quartzite -
  
  a very hard granular rock, possibly silicified or metamorphosed sandstone (Sarsen stones).

Photo above: deteriorating brownstone on a building in Brooklyn, New York.

Below, a more durable brownstone building behind the Alexander Pollock family and the author's previoius wife Harriet in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1972. (Mr. Pollock, a former Scottish Conservative Party politician was a young barrister when the author took this photo.)

• Sandstone & Brownstone
  
  a sedimentary rock formed by sand (quartz) grains cemented together, typically red, yellow or brown in color; Brownstone may also be used in foundations depending on quality, hardness, stability of the particular stone and its source quarry.
  
  Brownstone, a reddish brown stone (thanks to the presence of iron oxide (FeO₂) has been popular for building facades, lintels, steps, is a type of sandstone.
  
  See also STAINS on SANDSTONE, DIAGNOSE & CURE 
  
  See also MASONRY FACADE / WALL, LINTEL & BROWNSTONE DAMAGE
• Schist -
  
  a medium-grade metamorphic rock, harder than slate, softer than granite or gneiss.

• Slate
  
  "stone" is a fine-grained metamorphic rock with perfect cleavage. It's that cleavage that allows slate to be split into thin layers widely used as roofing, or in thicker forms as walks. Slate as a building wall or foundation material is not common, again depending on hardness and stability and resistance to fracturing.
  
  See also SLATE ROOF COLORS & SLATE CHEMISTRY
• Trap stone -
  
  any dark igneous rock crushed to random shapes
• Travertine stone -
  
  stone formed in hot springs and/or limestone caves, similar to marble, granite, onyx, limestone, slage (thanks to travertinewarehouse.com )

...

Popular foundation stones by stone shape or form

Photo above: this fieldstone foundation at a pre-1900 New York home was leaky and damaged enough that a previous building owner had begun constructing a concrete block inner "wall" to help stabilize the structure.

Notice that the fieldstone is uncut / unfinished, and that it is two or more feet in thickness.

• Fieldstone
  
  unfinished stone that is used in its natural form as found in nature, typically from arable or pasture land, in piles also called "clearance cairns".

Photo above: a quarry stone foundation in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. These stones have been rough-finished on at least one side to give a flat surface.

• Quarry stone -
  
  stone removed from an open pit mine, excavated, usually finished on one or more sides.
  
  Some quarry stones of particular properties or from a specific location take their name from the quarry, such as bath stone.
  
  Bath stone is an oolitic limestone formed 195 to 135 million years ago during the Jurassic period and mined in Bath in Somerset England, the U.K. (Bath is so named for its Roman-constructed baths).

Photo above: a river stone house photoraphed by DF in Germfask, Michigan in 2023.

• River stone -
  
  stones of various types found in a riverbed, typically smoothed by the action of water and movement of other stones and abrasives carried by water.

The popularity of a stone type may depend on the form in which it will be used. Stone may be used in construction of building foundations or walls in these shapes or forms:

• its natural form or shape
• rubble
• rounded
• worked into squared faces or into just one or two squared faces.

...

Soft Forms of Stone to Avoid for Foundations

What people would avoid (but you may still find) would include softer stones or stones that fracture or cleave easily, such as SOFTER forms of

• sandstone
• brownstone
• slate