Price of Stonework

To achieve ideal outcomes in any project planning and communication is key. We work closely with council, builders, architects, engineers, designers and home owners to ensure expectations match outcomes in terms of quality, timing, cost and wow factor. We encourage you to get in touch with us as soon as possible for inspiration, expert advice and obligation free quotes.

Basalt/Schist/Limestone/Sandstone comparison costs?
 Each stone type requires a variant of a qualified stonemasons labour. This labour can be greatly increased with more refined tighter (dry style joints) And reduced with the flush point or jointed styles. Stonework can be further reduced with the aid of specialist equipment to quarry, split and Gullotine the stone into flat faced boulders ready for a qualified stonemasons chisel.
 Schist stone can normally be bought pre cut in one tonne bags. This stone when bought from a quarry has already been split and guillotined ready for the qualified stonemason to perform final shaping and fix the stone in place. This keeps the labour aspect of schist work relatively low. Purchasing the pre guillotined schist with added transport costs bring the stone supply cost up, However Schist still remains relatively modestly priced.

Volcanic stones that include Port hills stone, Basalts, Trachite, Being the main local Canterbury volcanic stones.
These all require a large amount of labour to shape due to their hard gnarly nature. The availability of these rock types is scarce and often impossible to find as most of the old quarries are well and truly closed. We often purchase these rock types from excavation companies that are breaking out rock for building sites. Sometimes we may hold a stock of a particular stone for several years until it is needed. After purchasing good quality rock, We split the stone down with a large rock breaker on our 14 tonne excavator before running these slabs of rock through one of our large stone guillotines. This greatly reduces the labour needed to hand shape and dress the stone ready for fixing in a structure.
Even with our cost saving specialist equipment, Volcanic tight stack stonework remains our highest priced walling.

Sandstone is quarried locally at the historic Charteris bay quarry.
Southern Stonemasons manage this quarry for which is a public owned asset.
Due to the high quality sandstone from this quarry, We require less labour to hand shape this stone. Producing incredibly high quality stonework at a modest price.

Limestones are mainly supplied from Oamaru quarry or Waiau.
Oamaru stone is famous from its historical use on buildings throughout New Zealand, In particular Christchurch and Oamaru. Its softer nature lends itself to be used on decretive features as well as Ashlar style walling. 
With the low supply cost combined with lower labour costs due to the speed ashlar walling can be laid offering a very modest stone cladding option. Oamaru quarry has recently purchased a CnC machine capable of producing decretive mouldings at a very reasonable rate. If you are a fan of decretive stonework then I fully recommend enquiring about these products.
Waiau Limestone is a rubble quarry that produces some naturally shaped stones. Even when laid in a tight dry style the labour can still be kept relatively low. Laying Waiau limestone with a flush joint or jointed styles keeps this type of stonework very reasonable.




David Packman is a fully qualified quarryman and has all the nessecary quarry equipment to extract and process stone for a unique project. The Christchurch City Council and other major construction firms have often engaged us to advise and quarry stone for the many Heritage projects we have been involved in, Saving thousands in the budget.
Southern Stonemasons is a very established company and hold a strong professional relationship with our commercial stone suppliers, Ensuring we always get good quality stone on time at a fair price.


 abour being the main cost in stonework is an area we have cleverly fine tuned by investing in machinery and guillotines to enable a huge time saving in the processing of the rock. These time savings not only keep our overall charges down but help our stonemasons achieve a better finish at a reduced time frame, Giving a more value for money end result.

Qualified vs Unqualified stonemasons? What’s the true cost of shoddy work?

Rubble vs Squares?

Tight vs Jointed?

Approximate prices for different stonework per m2?

Cost and long term value?