Just In - New Hot Spring Stone Siding

[Zep]

Josh.......

Mine is not smoothe.....but "rough" doesn't really describe it well.

It is a stacked stone or ledgestone look.

It's really for looks and not something I ever touch.

Someone in here once claimed they thought it could cut my leg....
thats pretty far fetched.....and I have been in & out of mine
many, many times and never had a scratch.

I have sat on the edge and hung my leg over several times.....never been a problem.
It's not like the rock fascade is like razor blades or something.....lol

Hey....it's not for everybody.....but I love it and it is a very popular look in
today's design trends for housing, retail, office buildings, patio grills, ect...

[Richs100]

come on Rich it ain't like that ugly-a$$ baltimore......lol

the "stacked stone" or "ledgestone"  look is extremely popular here in
Dallas and many other parts of the country.

I agree, Zep, but given the fact that half of Baltimore and Philly are covered in FormStone, I suspect that it was "extremely popular" here, too at one time.

And never forget that at one point, Harvest Gold, Coppertone and Avocado were the most popular colors for your kitchen appliances!

I'm just sayin'.......

[Zep]

wow Rich are you now on the CalSpas bandwagon implying that
my Cal may last 75 years like those old dingy buildings in Baltimore?

i wonder what those buildings would like if they would of been made out
of traditional spa wood or fake wood panels?

[Richs100]

wow Rich are you now on the CalSpas bandwagon implying that
my Cal may last 75 years like those old dingy buildings in Baltimore?

i wonder what those buildings would like if they would of been made out
of traditional spa wood or fake wood panels?

Zep, I have always wanted to meet and shake the hand of the guy who came up with the idea that 1/2 of Baltimore and Philly should pay him to cover their REAL BRICK rowhouses with FAKE STONE.  He must have been quite a salesman.

"Tin Men" is a great movie which was set in late 50's Baltimore and involved the adventures of Aluminum Siding salesmen.  But I always thought it should have been about the Formstone sales guys instead.  An interesting aside about the formstone.....
I've heard Rehabbers now look for the homes with formstone because when they rip it off, they usually find it has protected the original brick underneath for the last 1/2 century!

[Zep]

Rich...some guy tried to talk me into putting a thin layer of new concrete over my existing ugly pebble patio and sidewalk.....it sounded kind of cheesy and I wondered how it would look and how long it would last.....I ended up just getting new patterned concrete.

[Chad]

Finally, and this is a pretty good idea.  The spa is actually ordered without the stone.  This is a dealer installed option.  The spa comes to the dealer with a marine grade plywood "cabinet."  The idea here is that you can do whatever you want with it.  If you want to use the Hot Spring stone siding, you can.  If you want to do your own thing, you can do that as well.  So, the options to your spa siding becomes unlimited at that point.

That's an excellent concept.

I would have created my own custom tile skirting if that was an option last year.

[Mendocino101]

Rich...some guy tried to talk me into putting a thin layer of new concrete over my existing ugly pebble patio and sidewalk.....it sounded kind of cheesy and I wondered how it would look and how long it would last.....I ended up just getting new patterned concrete.

It actually works great and is very popular. You get the basically the same thing that you did when you put down the new stamped concrete. It should have been much less $ for the over layment. But it is something that today is being done all the time.

[Zep]

mendo.....i went and looked at it....at some jobs he had done.... and I even saw some other overlays by another company....it looked good...much better than old beat up concrete.....again to me it looked good.....but not great.......you are right.....it was significantly cheaper

[Mendocino101]

its tough to find a real good mason guy....alot of them are still just learning "decorative" concrete.....it is huge trade now that you can get the look of stone or tile from concrete....acid staining, over lays, stamped.....it is really nice.....but they guy has to really know his trade....

[Zep]

Mendo.....I wish I had taken before pics of my ugly dated pebble stone concrete, but here are the after pics of the patterned & stained concrete.

[Mendocino101]

thats great looking and a beautiful home....

[searchinginfl]

I saw it while I was shopping. Looks like plastic close up, but great from a short distance. I think it would be much more difficult to keep clean, but the dirt may add to the "natural" look of it.

[Zep]

thanks mendo

searchinfl...what brand did you look at?....I am a very picky person on stuff like this and I absolutely would not have bought my CalSpa stone panels if it look at all "plastic" even up close.

Mine up close does not at all look plastic or fake.....most people think it is real stone.
I have seen another brand someone posted that looked kinda plastic...I forget which brand it was......the best I have seen are the CalSpas and this new Hot Spring rock panel looks really really good to me. the new sundance looks good too, but I would like to see it in person, that particular picture makes me want to touch and feel the sundance to see what it's like.....but Sundance being a great brand I bet it's really nice too.

btw.....dirt has not been a problem.....i dont have kids/pets.....i did spray it off once with a hose......i would think it would hide dirt much better than a flat wood or wood like panel because of the irregular patterns and colors of the rock

[Pathfinder]

Coast spas stone cabinet looks like plastic. The Cal synthetic stone option is about $1500 extra now and adds about 100 lbs extra. To order it after market would be about $2500 If the HS product is going to come after the fact i believe its going to be expensive to ship for dealers in the upper states, as last year I had to order in 1 stone panel it cost me $275 just for shipping because of the dimensions and weight.

[Spatech_tuo]

I've always said I loved the stone siding look on Zep's spa so now when I say it looks great on the Hot Spring and Sundance he can't accuse me of liking it only because its on those brands.  

It may be an expensive option and not for everyone but there will certainly be a certain % of people who will say "I'm already buying a $9k spa, I can handle another $1500 to get a great look that matches the house and will be around for 10+ years".  These really do look like the real thing IMO.