Info on Stucco and Plastering-February, 2023-sixty-eighth issue
Should formstone in Baltimore be considered historic ?
Yes, formstone should be historic. Don't throw rocks at me until you hear me out. Formstone was big in Baltimore in the 1950's, so in a short 30 years it will be 100 years old. To me 100
years is historic. With so much formstone in Baltimore, there is bound to be a formstone house where a famous or prominent person lived.
I really like formstone. I know most people think it is ugly, but each to is own.
I really like Baltimore. I think it is a beautiful city, but I know many don't share my opinion. Formstone
gives Baltimore part of it's unique character, sort of a bridge between urban decay and historically elegant.
A typical city block in Baltimore with formstone houses.
Formstone is a brand name for simulated stone stucco that was big in the 1950's. Formstone was put on brick and wood frame houses
as an upgrade to what was there. Formstone was solution , just like regular stucco, to old brick houses that leaked or needed repointing.
Old bricks were soft and porous and leaked a lot. Mainly water saturated the bricks and came out into the basement. Also,
old bricks required repointing because the original mortar was lime and sand and dissolved in water. It is an
expensive operation to point up bricks which is why stucco or simulated stone was a good alterative to pointing up.
A set of permastone tools. The forms were lined with wax paper and powder color was sprinkled on with a salt shaker. Also
mica dust was sprinkled on to give the stones a natural like sparkle. The stones made like this on the scaffold were uniquely random.
Sometimes these stones weren't formed on the scaffold. Some were hand tooled on the wall. At times, the stones were cast in a shop
and brought to the job. This gave the plasterers something to do on rainy days.
Most formstone was cast somewhere and delivered to the job. This is evidenced by the fact the texture and the color is the same
on a lot of formstone houses. With the dimensions of the house, the stones were shipped with a variety of sizes and colors. Formstone was used a lot in Washington, DC, as well of a variety of different brands and handmade simulated stones.
A web search for formstone turned up a lot of interesting information and pictures of formstone.