Tapered fieldstone plinths—Lopez Island, Washington
Tapered fieldstone plinths anchor the porch posts to the bluestone patio (Click photo for larger image)
Designers: Mike & Taya Higgins
Contractor: Ascent Building Company / Mike Porter & Shawn Westervelt
Working with native fieldstone is both a joy and a challenge. The stone is a gift of the glaciers that covered Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands 15,000 years ago. Carved from the granite mountains of Canada, they were left behind when the glaciers receded. These “glacial erratics” are abundant in the stony soils of the San Juans, and offer the stonemason a wonderful variety of shapes, textures, and colors.
The stone plinths are tapered to reduce their visual “weight” and to create a transition from the wooden porch posts to the bluestone patio.
The plinths are finished with cast-in-place concrete caps. The simple lines of the caps compliment the rustic quality of the native stone.
- Lopez Island fieldstone
- Precast concrete caps
- Bluestone patio
Plinths are finished with precast concrete caps (Click photo for larger image)
Native Lopez Island fieldstone... (Click photo for larger image)
...has a wonderful rustic character (Click photo for larger image)
Porch posts before stonework
Plinth under construction