Stonemasonry is both art and physical labour. Stonemasons are experts in shaping and fixing stone structures, performing repair works and restorations of homes, historical buildings and monuments, as well as creating new stone features.
Besides a range of stone carving tools, a stonemason needs to be armed with great attention to detail, a flair for mathematics and art, creativity, coordination, and physical endurance.
Something most of us may describe as simply “made of stone” would be seen much more concretely in a mason’s eyes: sandstone, limestone, marble, granite, quartz… the list of materials they work with goes on and on.
A day in the life may consist of stone restoration (repairing and maintaining historical monuments or performing stone facade repair works on buildings), dressing stone and constructing walls, reconstructing old memorial headstones and carving new ones, fitting archways and windows, shaping the material into the right sizes for building cladding, or even chiselling ornaments and statues.
Specialisations of the stone mason profession include quarrymen, who extract stone from the ground; this raw material is then cut into cuboids by the diamond-tipped saws and sent into workshops to be moulded into precise shapes and embellished by banker masons.
Carvers, as the name suggests, are the people who turn stone into the artwork by carving figures, foliage, or abstract ornaments. Their products can then be fixed onto buildings, which is where fixer masons come in. And as all things come to an end, there is always a need for memorial or monumental masons to carve inscriptions into gravestones and create monuments.
At Building Restoration & Cleaning (Leeds) Ltd, we can vouch for our expert stonemasons to deliver work of utmost quality. With our wide range of material and architectural stone features, your facades and stonework are sure to be revitalised or crafted to perfection. But most importantly all of our masons have empathy for the building they are working on as well as its history.