News - Bruhn Limestone

Limestone gives Sandstone a run for its Money

April 29, 2016/in Limestone, Sandstone /by Andy Carmody

Sandstone has long been the building material of choice for some of the most beautiful and prestigious homes in Sydney, but now there’s a new kid on the block.

A number of Sydney architects and builders are starting to recommend limestone as the building material of choice for their clients. These early adopters are crossing the border and sourcing their limestone from our quarry near Mt Gambier in the South East of SA. And for good reason.

Limestone colour range

Bruhn Limestone is a beautiful natural resource. It comes in a variety of colours ranging from light creams to rich biscuit hues which offer you different options for your new home.

Because Bruhn Limestone is so easy to work, it allows us to create a wide range of products such as face-finished ashlar blocks, solid decorative moulds and an assortment of columns.

A quarter of the cost of sandstone

Limestone is about a quarter of the cost of sandstone, which represents a significant saving — funds that can then be redirected to other areas.

Craig Anderson from CA Building Services in Sydney said,

“One of our clients really wanted sandstone for their new home but their budget just didn’t allow for it. We thought limestone was the perfect solution. Our clients were excited when we told them we could create the look they wanted with limestone, at a fraction of the cost. Even with the transport costs from SA, building with limestone represented a massive saving and still allowed us to create their ideal home.”

Building a new home is a big investment and with so many costs involved, finding a way to save money yet not compromise on quality or style is a huge bonus. Savings on the building material will mean more money for those beautiful fixtures and fittings on your wishlist.

And when you see what a beautiful backdrop limestone makes to your stunning new interiors, you’ll be extremely pleased with your choice for many years to come.

Upgrade your building material to limestone

Because limestone is such an affordable building material, many home owners who would normally be looking at building in brick and render are also discovering limestone. A new home built in limestone will cost about the same as brick and render, but you’ll get a lot of extra benefits such as high thermal and acoustic qualities.

Limestone is versatile

Limestone is a material that works equally well for traditional or modern designs. Which means that no matter what your dream home looks like, we think we can help you achieve it. And it doesn’t matter where in Australia you’re building either — we supply our limestone directly to your site, anywhere in the country.

If you’d to have a look a few of the 6,000 homes we’ve helped create, click through to see our gallery. And if you’d like to find out more about building in limestone, or want us to cost your project, please contact us. We’d be very pleased to help you.

Using Limestone in your new home

March 8, 2016/in Limestone /by Andy Carmody

Your Unique Home

The common theme that architects and builders often hear when speaking to clients is that the end user always wants a uniqueness to their homes and I suppose why wouldn’t they!. If your designing a custom built home it should be reflective of your lifestyle, family needs and pick up the personality you are striving to achieve in the ideal home of your dreams.

Certainly designing the floor plans needs to suit these lifestyle requirements and should be well thought out with a good custom builder who listens and works closely with you. If you achieve this good balance in the relationship you will eventually design this ‘floorplan footprint’ and all the planning will soon turn into excitement of what the end result will look like and how quick can we make this happen.

External Cladding makes the Home

But it’s the ‘look like’ and the ‘uniqueness’ of the external cladding of your home that will set it apart from what everyone else is doing and immediately build resale value from the moment you receive the keys. The external cladding of a home is like the ‘dress sense’ or ‘make up’ worn by us as individuals and we are offered opportunity and many options to select this exterior persona as a reflection of who we are and how we would like our new home to look in the design stage.

Limestone gives an ‘individual look’

When investigating what cladding options are available to achieve this ‘individual look’ we discovered natural limestone offers all the above options due to its incredible versatility in product and colour range and the ability for it to simply just fit into all housing design options is quite remarkable.

Limestone is traditional

If it’s a more of a traditional type home that suits your taste, limestone blocks are now complemented with a broad range of decorative mouldings so plinths, wall bands, window moulds and parapet capping is now all easily achievable. If it’s a more modern contemporary designs that suits your liking limestone offers clean crisp lines that complement timbers and steel to create the most beautiful architecturally designed structures.

There is just something about natural stone that offers an immediate warmness and beauty to a home as well as the additional benefits of the superior thermal and acoustic properties that come with it.

Limestone Myths

Building in stone is also often misunderstood as being very expensive and difficult for builders to pull together but this is simply a myth as building in limestone has the exact same principals of building in brick and there are a large number of stonemasons in Melbourne who specialise in working with Limestone at very affordable rates. These masons can work magic with the stone to create features and detail both externally and internally that can offer the uniqueness you are looking for.

Bruhn Limestone are the Limestone Specialists

If limestone is of interest to you we recommend considering BRUHN Limestone as a supplier it is a well-established business with over 70 years’ experience in servicing clients Australia wide. The team at BRUHN are always welcoming and professional and specialise in pulling projects together whether it be simply better understanding costs to project managing stone and masons for your home. The other considerable benefit is that you are dealing quarry direct which always saves you dollars in the long run.

Sandstone Blocks

November 26, 2015/in Limestone, Sandstone /by Andy Carmody

About Limestone and Sandstone Blocks

Limestone and Sandstone Blocks and bricks are a popular building material because of the stone’s desirable features, attractive looks, natural finish and the superb thermal and acoustic properties the stone offers.
Limestone and Sandstone blocks have been used in building for 1,000’s of years as although the stone is dense in its composition it is relatively easy to shape and work with making it easy to lay and offering outstanding finishes.
Limestone and Sandstone are both a perfect material for the construction of residential homes and commercial buildings.
This construction method can be used as a new ‘ground up’ laying approach where blocks are simply mortar bedded together similar to brick construction or the stone supplied in a cladding material which is adhered to an existing surface not dissimilar to tiling.
BRUHN Limestone produce both full block and veneer products all dimensionally cut and delivered to site ready for immediate laying

Sandstone Blocks in Home Construction

Sandstone blocks are a popular choice in domestic building construction where the design calls for:

Thermal isolation
Sandstone and Limestone has superior thermal isolation, protecting the home owners from the winter cold or summer heat. As an example BRUHN Limestone offers 3 times the thermal properties of a clay brick.

Fire Resistance
Sandstone and Limestoneis non-combustible and so fire resistant. CSIRO reports of exact FLR performance are available on request
Sound Proofing
Sandstone and Limestone have strong sound proofing characteristics
Embodied energy rating
Sandstone and Limestone have outstanding low embodied energy ratings when compared with prefabricated /man made alternative construction materials
Affordability
BRUHN Limestone is an incredibly affordable building material and is often misunderstood to be in a higher end price bracket. To better understand what’s involved in your project simply talk to the team at BRUHN Limestone

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