Yellow Mountain StoneWorks

Dear Clients & Associates,Happy New Year! Thank you for contributing to such a successful 2007 for Yellow Mountain StoneWorks, Inc.

We began the year by upgrading our website and have had a lot of good feedback from those of you who continue to find it a useful tool in specifying our product and learning more about what you can do with stone. The new product pages provide standard test data, suggested uses of the material, most popular finishes and links to projects that feature the particular stone of interest. Remember, our ability to rend multiple finishes on the same stone adds a new dimension and texture to your design palette.

We are happy to report that our market place has expanded to include Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado and most recently, the San Francisco Bay Area. Our portfolio has become more diverse in design and scope to include health care, high end residential, mixed use/commercial, landscape, and public art.

One of our most notable projects designed by Scott Murase of Murase Associates is Sliver Park on the north facade of the newly renovated Armory/Gerding Theaters in Portland. This charcoal black granite water feature collects rainwater from an underground cistern and runs it artfully along the side of the building into a bioswale. This technically challenging project provided YMSW with an opportunity to collaborate very successfully with our client from shop drawings all the way to final finessing of the feature stone at the job site.

A new addition to our website worth looking at for pure inspiration is our photo gallery. We developed this page as a purely inspirational tool. After years of working with stone, we have come across so many illustrations of how fluid this material can be. As an environmentally sustainable product, stone is in a class by itself, having an economic life measured in centuries not decades.

For 2008 - keep in mind that Stone is the New Green. Let us know if we can pay you a visit to update you on our products and services.

Design Challenge:
Fulfill an architect’s vision of antique stone ‘ruins’ around a large pool, while keeping the project on schedule.

Solution:
Harvest stone from the same quarry as the antique Chinese stone pavers used elsewhere on the project. Do all of the fabrication to the architect’s specifications in China, and render all of the exposed faces of the material with an ‘antique finish’ that matches the authentic original.

This reduced the work for the on-site mason considerably and cut the cost of the finished granite by 50%. In addition, the newly quarried stone was better suited for creating arches and other design elements of the ‘ruins.’

This antique finish has become one of YMSW’s most popular.

Design Challenge:
Find a natural alternative to Roman Cobble concrete pavers, offering a richer look at competitive pricing.

Solution:
Fabricate Roman Cobble pavers from three varieties of Chinese Granite.

Make the pavers available in a blend of three different neutral colors and in the 7” x 9” size standard for concrete pavers. Stock a domestic inventory so the material is readily at hand without a shipping delay.

Roman Cobble Granite pavers are a great solution where the Value Engineering exercise is moving natural stone off the table. They are perfect for multi-use public spaces, streetscapes or vehicular driveways. Add our YMSW Truncated Dome Paver to the mix to meet client, code or regulation requirements for the visually impaired.

Elegant and long-lasting, the cobbles provide a sustainable alternative to concrete at an affordable price.

Our partner and VP of China Operations, Erik Nelson, has just returned from two weeks touring our growing network of suppliers and fabricators in China. During this productive visit, he was able to re-qualify our source for the much sought after reclaimed granite road planks. From the ancient towns of Southern China, we have available thousands of square feet of mashijie originally installed during the Qing and Ming dynasties. The appeal of these materials is the high wear and rich patina that has developed across the Imperial finish specifications: rough chiseled, pineapple and various corduroy patterns. These planks are typically fabricated with the local grey or golden granites. The bottom face of the plank can be sawn off to achieve a 2-3″ uniform thickness and the edges are hand finished to compliment the antique patina, or these can be salvaged as is without any cutting or finishing - cleaned, packed and shipped.

Newly quarried material is available from the same region. This granite can be fabricated in a variety of hand finishes that coordinate exceptionally well with the antique material. Additionally, we have our own Yellow Mountain StoneWorks Antique Finish, inspired by the authentic antique pavers and produced at a lower cost to our customers.

0207-GR29 Grey Antique Granite & 0207-GR59 Golden Antique Granite:
Dimensions: 2-4″ thick x 7.5-15″ wide x 90″ long
Maximum Length: 158″
Maximum Width: 17″
Maximum Thickness: 8″

Price range: 72″L x 12″W x 2″ Thick
FCL $25/sf (cleaned) - $30/sf (cleaned & gauged) - FOB Portland/Seattle

One of the messages we have been getting from several of our clients here in the Northwest, is that there is an increasing shortage of Bluestone, a material used abundantly in landscapes. Rarely can one high grade the ‘true blue’ color, lead times are lagging and prices are rising. In response to this need we believe we have come up with a material or combination of materials that are fine substitutes for this product - our True Blue Slate 0211-SL80, good for random flagstone or cut pavers, veneer or stacked wall stone and our Yangzi River Khaki Blue Sandstone 0214-SA90, which responds beautifully to any cubic fabrication. The slate has an elegant rough hewn finish whereas the sandstone responds well to any one of our 15-20 hand finishes.Pricing is as follows presuming FCL order quantities, current POX pricing and includes delivery to the job site, West Coast MMA:

Material Configuration - Nominal 1″ (254.mm); Nominal 1.5 inch (38.1mm)

0211-SL80 True Blue
Random Flagstone - Average 24×18 $14.75/sf; $ 22.15/sf

0214-SA90 Khaki Blue Sandstone
18×18 Thermal A face $12.25/sf; $ 18.25/sf

If you would like samples of either of these materials please contact our Seattle Office: 206-932-5696.

Testing Data:
0211-SL80 True Blue Slate
Water Absorption % .36%
Compressive Strength (Wet) PSI 7,540
Compressive Strength (Dry) PSI 10,295
Flexural Strength (Wet) PSI 4,495
Flexural Strength (Dry) PSI 4,785

0214-SA90 Yangzi River Khaki Blue Sandstone
Water Absorption % .06%
Compressive Strength (Wet) PSI 18,560
Compressive Strength (Dry) PSI 15,950
Flexural Strength (Wet) PSI 1,667.50
Flexural Strength (Dry) PSI 2,146