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Granite bench idea?

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Posted by ElaineW z5 MA (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 27, 05 at 15:35

This is my first time on this forum. But from what I have read there are a lot of creative thinkers on here. I hope someone can give me an idea of how to turn a 1 1/4 inch thick slab of granite into a garden bench. It's 13 x 29. Not very big but a really nice piece of stone.

I got it from a granite company waste pile. It seems like a wonderful resource for cool garden things. I couldn't pass up the opportunity take some pieces for stepping stones and little table tops, etc. The bench has to be stable and I'm not sure how I can pull this off.
Thanks for any suggestions for the bench- or other hunks of granite.

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RE: Granite bench idea?

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I hope you get some ideas for that granite here. My friend and I were looking at granite slabs and happened to have a glance into their trash dumpster which had lots of nice pieces we would have liked to have.

My only thought is that the scraps probably would not make good stepping stones as they would be too slippery.

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RE: Granite bench idea?

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Thanks socks. I thought that too. I have a fake little "pond" that I made out of a black and blue granite tile from my kitchen. It's cute. It has a little ceramic frog sitting on it. (No real water feature yet...)
Every once in a while I step on it so I don't squash the plants around it as I weed. I will use them sparingly as stepping stones- not in a path- and make sure that they don't stay sparkling clean. I'll let the mulch scatter on them and plants creep up and then there will be something beside the stone to step on.

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RE: Granite bench idea?

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You need something heavy enough to support the weight & to keep the bench stable.

I'm thinking cinderblocks.

Maybe check on the Garden Junk Forum to see how you can stain/paint/whatever so they don't look like cinderblocks.

Have fun!

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RE: Granite bench idea?

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I'm not sure whether you want the slab to sit on - or plant on. If you want to plant onto it - like a bonsai base, then perhaps some of your local field stones would do the job for you. A slight tilt would allow water to drain readily.

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I would like it to be a bench to sit on. If I put it on cinderblocks how would I attach it? And I would definitely want to camouflage them so you couldn't tell they were cinderblocks.

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go over to the hypratufa forum...they can tell you how to cover the blocks and what 'glue' to use to attach it. I am sure it will come out beautiful.

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RE: Granite bench idea?

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This is what we plan to do with some of our larger granite scraps...
Take 2 old tree stumps, make the bottoms and tops of your stumps level. You could peal the bark off your stumps and varnish them or.... just leave them looking natural. Then, set your slab of granite on top. It's probably easiest to attach the granite to the stumps with silicone.
For the edges, leave them natural or break off parts to give you a 'rock face edge' look alike.

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of rock face edge

  
 

 

 


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