Granite with the town's name on it
Geologists call the pink granite found through the lower White Mountains Conway granite. Edward Hitchcock named it for this town in 1877. In the village of Redstone, quarries on Rattlesnake Mountain cut red and green granite from the 1880s until the last stone came out in 1948.
So a granite face on a Conway house has local roots. Kevin sets cut granite veneer, with squarer pieces and straighter lines, and rounder New Hampshire fieldstone. Which one fits depends on the house.
The houses in the valley
Conway had close to 10,000 people at the 2020 census and a real range of houses. There are older homes in Conway village and Center Conway, ski houses and condos near Cranmore, and newer homes on the hills looking toward Cathedral Ledge and the mountains.
Condo associations sometimes set rules for what can change on the outside of a unit, so check those before planning stone on a condo.
- Ski houses: posts under a big deck, and a fireplace wall inside
- Older village homes: a new foundation face or an entry
- New builds: stone on the foundation all the way around
Fireplaces for long winters
Plenty of Conway houses have a fireplace or wood stove at the middle of the main room. A stone surround or a stone hearth wall puts real stone where the family sees it every day of the winter.
Inside work is also less tied to the weather than a foundation job outside.
Snow, salt and the Saco
The Swift River joins the Saco in Conway, and the town gets heavy snow. Both matter for stone at the base of a house. Plowed snow and road salt pile against foundations near driveways, and spring melt runs down the walls.
Natural stone stands up to cold. The weak spots are salt and water sitting at the bottom of the wall. A strip of gravel between the pavement and the stone, and snow thrown away from the wall instead of piled on it, make a real difference.
Getting Kevin up to Conway
Conway is in the Mount Washington Valley, north of Ossipee on Route 16. The quickest start is a text to (603) 581-5350 with photos, the village you are in and roughly how much wall you have. Kevin also builds fieldstone walls, steps, walkways and patios, and Jones Legacy paints, if the project is bigger than one wall.
