Romancing the Stone : Cost Needn’t Come Between Homeowners and Their Love of Masonry
Negotiating the first few paces beyond Morgan Augustus’ front gate can be intimidating for those who don’t expect a large in-ground whirlpool spa and rock waterfall where most people have a sidewalk.
But those who manage to traverse the spa by means of the three small island-like steps Augustus has provided (he says that only one person other than himself has ever fallen in) generally are enthralled by what they encounter.
The burly blond mason, who has been polishing his craft for nearly 20 years--beginning as a youngster tagging along with his father in the early 1970s--has turned his 2,000-square-foot Rancho San Joaquin-area home into a showplace illustrating his argument that you don’t have to be wealthy to indulge in a taste for stone, brick and tile.
Of course, it helps to be loaded if you plan to turn a mason loose on a half-acre of back yard. Augustus has done more than one such job and says the bills can easily approach $150,000 for the hardscape--concrete and masonry work--alone.
“When you want everything, and have a lot of ground to cover, there is no doubt about it--masonry is an expensive way to go,” said Augustus. “But there are a lot of very affordable things people can do too.”
Pointing to his own courtyard, Augustus singles out a ceramic-tiled dry bar and the Mexican-style terra-cotta pavers that floor the area.
“I’ve done bars like that (with no water supply or other plumbing) for $300 to $400,” he said. “And a good-looking patio floor can run as little as $8 a square foot when we have to put down new concrete or $6 a foot if we are just paving over existing concrete.”
As a mason, Augustus--and yes, he says, it is a real last name, handed down from his British forebears--works with concrete, brick, tile and stone and says there are few homes in Orange County where any of those materials would look out of place.
But in his professional development, Augustus, 32, has found himself turning more and more toward stone and natural, unglazed tiles as his preferred media.
“In the ‘80s, everyone used colored tiles, and so did I. But now, even for big outdoor barbecues and kitchens and for patios and pool and spa decks, I prefer stone.”
For one thing, he says, stone tends to be less expensive to use. The stone itself generally costs more than tile, but because the pieces are larger it requires less labor to install, bringing down the overall cost to the customer.
Beyond cost, however, is the simple fact that colored tiles tend to date a project and limit future remodeling choices.
“You can tell by the color of the tile and the grout when something was put in. Avocado tiles came from the early 1970s, for instance, and whenever you see a bathroom or kitchen with avocado tile, you immediately know when it was done.
“A countertop with a chipped tile is ugly, but if you top it with stone and a piece gets chipped, well, it is still a nice piece of stone. The color and texture go all the way through.”
Finally, says Augustus--sounding like an official spokesman for the quarry owners’ association (which, he hastens to say, he isn’t)--stone used outdoors weathers better than any other material.
“Unlike bricks and tiles, you don’t need to put on chemical sealers every year. Remember, that piece of stone already has been out in the weather for 4 million years or so when you put it in.”
In his own home, just about the only artificial color is in the bright-blue 3-inch-square glazed tiles that cover the kitchen counters.
The floors are raw Saltillo tile from Mexico--the same pale terra-cotta tiles used in the courtyard and on the deck that extends the living and dining areas to the outdoors.
And instead of glass, wood or tile, the material topping Augustus’ dining room table, free-standing bar-buffet and coffee table is pale red Arizona flagstone--1 1/2-inch-thick slabs left as rough and irregular as the quarry man’s art allows.
Still, Augustus isn’t opposed to other materials. He typically uses colored tile to top the cantilevered dining counters and food preparation areas in the outdoor kitchens he builds for clients.
In a recent installation for a family in Rancho Santa Margarita, he used a light-blue glazed tile on the 22-foot semicircular counter. The base was made of concrete block, stuccoed to match the house. A large gas barbecue, wet bar, refrigerator and sink all were built in.
But for the pool deck and edging, Augustus chose flagstone. He laid the material flush with the pool on three sides, but built up a planter area between the pool and the back fence.
To keep the rock work looking natural, Augustus built the planter walls with a technique called dry-stacking. The flat flagstones are bonded with cement, but it stops several inches from the edge of each piece so that none of the cement is visible.
Instead of a rock wall covered with zigzags of colored mortar, the viewer sees only layered rock face, looking more like something on a hike through the Arizona mountains than on the edge of a family swimming pool in south Orange County.
Decks and courtyards can quickly become very expensive installations when masonry is used because of the large areas they cover.
But Augustus says that an outdoor cooking center--which could range from a simple built-in barbecue to an entire kitchen’s worth of appliances--wrapped by a tiled eating counter is within the reach of many budgets.
“And because the Southern California lifestyle is so outdoors-oriented, it is something that gets used all the time and, if built right, will add a lot of value to a home when it is time to sell.”
Other affordable installations include fountains and ponds, which a good design and a good mason can make look as formal and fancy or natural and relaxed as the homeowner wants.
Augustus said he is a firm believer in working with clients to ensure they get what they want.
He considers himself a creative artist, but says he doesn’t let his creativity drive dictate the project.
“You don’t make the client happy that way. I believe in developing a degree of friendship with my clients, so that I am comfortable that I know what they are like and what they will like, and so they are comfortable communicating with me. Then we can plan something that everyone likes, and that’s when a project really works well and goes together smoothly.”
While Augustus trained on his father’s crew during the 1970s, his first career goal was not to be a mason.
“I was going to be a freestyle skier,” he said. After high school he moved to Colorado and then to Lake Tahoe to pursue that goal. But to support himself in the summers, he turned back to the building trades, working as a mason on crews throughout both regions.
“It was an experience that exposed me to some different techniques, especially in working with native stone.”
Ultimately, skiing gave way to masonry as a full-time career and Augustus moved back to Southern California.
He received his license and started his own company in 1980 and by the late ‘80s was working all over Irvine--he spent 2 1/2 years in the upscale Turtle Rock Crest neighborhood, working for 33 of the area’s 102 homeowners.
At the height of the boom, Morgan Augustus Masonry Construction had 16 employees, and Augustus found himself doing more and more paperwork and less and less of the hands-on work that he prefers.
The construction industry slump that began in 1989 helped him decide that smaller was better, and today Augustus runs a one-man firm and relies on a cadre of close friends in the trades to help him with the work he cannot handle on his own.
“Now I’m having the fun that I believe should be part of anyone’s job,” he said. “If it’s not fun, why do it?”
His latest project--and one he said has been as much fun as anything he’s ever done--will give Augustus a showcase few other masons can match.
Working with Joanna Matranga, owner of the newly opened Piante Gardens landscape complex in the Dove Canyon Center, Augustus has installed a series of permanent masonry projects showcasing his work. The last piece was completed Friday.
Visitors to the garden center, at Plano Trabuco Road and Dove Canyon Drive on the far eastern edge of Rancho Santa Margarita, can walk through a series of landscaped areas and see a variety of walls, walks, floors, pools, fountains, barbecues, patio columns and stream beds utilizing 17 different masonry materials and 15 colors and textures of concrete.
