Cost Comparison — My DIY Faux Stone Porch Skirting vs. A Ready-Made Product

Of course, the biggest cost of the DIY version was my time. This was a pretty extensive and time-consuming project, but to me, it was worth it. I do have the advantage of being a DIY blogger, so working on DIY projects is literally my job. It might be different for a person who works another full-time job and then has to work in these DIY projects on evenings and weekends. But for me, my main objective was to end up with a porch skirting that looks like it was built with the exact same stone that is used on the rest of our house, so spending the time to get it right was totally worth it to me. But whether or not that cost of time is worth it is one that each person has to make. If someone has limited time, it’s perfectly reasonable to choose a ready-made product that’s “close enough”.

But as far as the actual financial cost of this project, here’s how the cost breaks down…

Making the molds:

• GE 100% All Purpose Silicone Caulk – 8 tubes @ $9.48 each = $75.84
• Cornstarch – 4 18-ounce packages @ $3.33 each = $13.32
• 1″ x 4″ x 8′ PVC boards – 5 @ $19.98 each = $99.90
• Scrap plywood – on hand = $0.00
• #8 x 1.5″ wood screws – 1 package of 100 @ $11.47 = $11.47
• Great Stuff spray foam – 2 cans @ $4.98 each = $9.96
• WD-40 – 1 can @ $8.78 = $8.78

Tools:

• 6″ x 2″ concrete margin trowel – 1 @ $14.97 each = $14.97
• Mortar bag – 1 @ $6.97 each = $6.97
• 5 gallon bucket – 1 @ $3.98 each – $3.98
• 5 quart mixing bucket – 1 @ $3.98 each = $3.98
• 1 quart container – 2 @ $2.98 each = $5.96
• Sprayer – on hand – $0.00

Total Cost:

Once I add tax to those costs, that brings the total cost of my DIY faux concrete porch skirting to $480.48 if I did my math right (which is always questionable 😀 ).

Price Comparison:

How does that price compare to a ready-made product? Of course, there are a lot of products out there that I could compare my faux stone facade to, but of all of the options I looked at, there was only one that I would have seriously considered. Most stone facade products that look like Austin stone don’t have the signature 1/2-inch mortar lines between them like the stone on our house has, and it was important to me to have that. Again, my goal was to make my porch skirting match the stone on our house, and finding an exact match to our late 1940’s/early 1950’s Austin stone was impossible.

But there was one that came close, and that was this EverStone polyurethane faux stone panel product in the Castle Rock pattern.

None of the colors that had available would have worked for me, so I would have had to paint it to match. But I had to do that anyway with my DIY version, so that didn’t deter me at all.

In addition to the panels, I would also need one of the corner pieces. I had three corners to cover, but these corner pieces are 48″ high, so I could have gotten all three corners that I needed out of one piece.

I have to admit that the corner pieces were kind of a deal breaker for me. These are the corner pieces made to go with those panels, but they don’t really seem to match the panels in appearance. These corner pieces are $46.55 each. So for the panels and corner piece, plus shipping and tax, the cost would be $579.09.

And then these panels are attached using polyurethane adhesive. I estimated that I’d need about six tubes of adhesive like Loctite PL-3, which are $7.48 each. That would add $48.58 (with tax) to the cost, for a total cost of $627.57.

So in the end, my DIY version ended up being cheaper than the ready-made panels. But again, they came at a much higher cost of my time that I spent making all of the molds and pouring each individual stone. Since I got exactly what I wanted, I think the time added was worth it for me.