Where the Money Goes
“Why is stonework so expensive?”
I’ve been asked that countless times. I’m sure you have too, whatever field you're in.
It’s true: stonework is expensive.
My stock answer is that stones are heavy and hard to move.
But that’s not the full picture.
There are a lot of parts of the process that aren’t obvious to outsiders, especially clients.
Do you know all the costs involved in bringing your own projects to life?
Do your clients?
I just put together pricing for what at first seemed like a fairly simple job, until I broke it down into all its parts:
Time spent sourcing the right stones from various suppliers and quarries
Purchasing the stones
Transporting them to the job site on a trailer pulled by a big, fuel-hungry truck
Unloading them with my excavator
Hauling the excavator over an hour to the site, even before the stones arrive
Filling the excavator with diesel
Digging four-foot-deep holes
Forming footings using 2x4s and plywood
Buying at least 90 bags of 80-pound concrete
Driving the concrete to the site, unloading it, mixing and pouring it into the footing frames
Inserting steel rebar into the wet concrete for strength
Hiring a boom truck, essentially a mobile crane, to lift the stones into place for at least two days
Lifting each large stone and hovering it over the footings
Taking careful measurements
Cutting the bottom of each stone flat using gas-powered saws with diamond-coated blades
Drilling one hole into the footing and one into the bottom of the stone
Inserting a steel pin into the stone and fixing it with epoxy
Filling the footing hole with epoxy as well
Lifting the stone again and lowering it into place, hoping the pin locks in cleanly
Repeating this process with the second standing stone
Fitting a third stone across the top of the two uprights to form a crosspiece, using the same process
Setting up two sets of staging to work at that height
Installing a fourth stone on top of the crosspiece
Cleaning up
Returning all the equipment
Commuting one and a half hours each way, every day
That’s the physical part. There’s also time invested in emails, phone calls, meetings, managing subcontractors, estimates, and invoices. In other words, all the things it takes to run a business.
On top of all that, I need to make a profit. Not just to keep the business going, but to live a good life.
So yes, the numbers can look high. But there’s a reason.
Behind every finished project is a long chain of effort most people never see.
I guess in a way, it really does come down to stones being heavy and hard to move.