A full-height outdoor stone fireplace built on a lakeside property near Lake Norman. This was a masonry feature build — footing, firebox, full natural-stone veneer, and chimney — sized and finished to serve as the centerpiece of the outdoor living space.
How we approached it
Outdoor fireplaces take sun, rain, and freeze-thaw cycles year-round, so what you don’t see matters as much as what you do. We started with a proper footing to keep the structure from shifting, built the firebox to handle real fires, and then laid the natural stone veneer by hand — watching color flow and joint detail so the finished wall reads as one piece rather than a patchwork. The chimney was built to draw cleanly and capped against weather.
On a feature wall this tall, small drifts off plumb become obvious, so every course was checked for level and plumb as we went.
The result
A durable, hand-laid stone fireplace that anchors the outdoor living space and is built to hold up for decades on the water.
If you’re planning an outdoor fireplace, a fire pit, or a full patio feature, we’re glad to walk your property and talk through what would work best for your space.
