Does anyone know if you can purchase Hokie stone for building projects? I'm redoing portions of my back and front yards and need to build a couple retaining walls and would love to do them in Hokie stone. If you can buy it, anyone know if there's a way to get it in Nothern VA (without driving down to B-Burg)?
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I acquired my several pieces from minor acts of pilfering across the campus. You might be able to contact the quarry that we use directly.
The quarry is university owned and they aren't allowed to sell it for private use. Your best bet would be to contact the construction companies currently using it on jobs around campus and seeing if they have any extra lying around that you could pick up. Contracturally I don't think they'd be able to sell it to you either.
Pretty sure the general contractors are required to return unused attic stock back to the university. They will not sell to or give away to the public. It'd be a waste of time to cold call a large GC anyway.
I love a good HQG
I have as close as you will ever come with 20% being authentic.....Let me know if still interested.
Damn. Thanks for the info. I wonder how much $$ I need to donate to get access...
Well Vick had access soooo that much?
I have a dream of building a bar out of hokie stone. One day maybe...
If you are still interested, I can hook you up......Let me know
I acquired my piece honestly... and by that I mean totally stolen out of a pile being used to build the knee wall in front of Durham Hall.
At least you're honest.
I have a pile of it sitting in my parents back yard. We used to walk through campus to get to TV from downtown instead of taking the bus a lot. We acquired a lot of broken pieces of Hokie Stone laying around from all the construction. We had lots of ideas of things to do with it in our apartment, but we'd get drunk too early on the weekends we could do anything with it to use power tools.
Same with the block sitting by my front door. My arms were sore for about 3 days from carrying the thing halfway across campus to my car.
I walked up to the site one time and asked the masons who were chipping all the blocks to square if I could have the chips and they let me take a 70 gallon rubbermade container back to the fraternity house that we used to facade the built in grill. Might try that route.
You don't have a picture of that grill facade do you? Interested how it turned out.
Not at the moment, but I can get one. It turned out alright for a bunch of college kids, but could have been better.
the sign/entrance at the corner of Prices Fork & W Campus is light a couple of Hokie Stones...
3D print an imitation of it?
It's dolomitic limestone I'm pretty sure, so you might be able to contact some commercial supplier and buy some that looks close enough. It won't be real hokie stone but it should be close.
It can be 20% original as 20% of Hokie stone does not come from the Hokies quarry. I have the dead ringer available if interested.
Arriscraft and Rockcast are making some pretty good manufactured copies.
As I've been searching I found this:
http://ww2.roanoke.com//news/roanoke/31980.html
Anyone know if this is still a thing?? A house built out of Hokie stone?? Brilliant!
I work for a materials company in the area and a company called Rockcast, as mentioned by a commenter above, makes a good replica. Another company that makes a good replica (manufactured stone) is a company named Dutch Quality Stone. They are not allowed to call it Hokie Stone, so they named it Blacksburg Blend. Unfortunately, it is a non-stock item for them and it has to be ordered in fairly large quantities.
Thanks! How much does the Rockcast replica cost roughly? Also I assume "fairly large" means commercial type of large and not like "I'm building a roughly 30 linear foot retaining wall in my backyard" kind of large?
Btw, I effing love the TKP community!
The Rockcast is gonna be high. Probably in the 10 dollar range per square foot, without freight (just a guess-timate though). The Dutch Quality product is only about 6 a square foot, but it is usually a 500 sq. ft. order minimum. I have been trying to get this stuff stocked, but being the only Tech grad in my office, I have had no luck.
I'll gladly write an email/letter to your company supporting your idea to stock the Dutch Quality stuff. Perhaps I can find some other Nothern VA Hokies that want some to and put in an order.
Thanks again!
@dirtybirds12 hopefully you are still part of the community. been 6 long hard years. was wondering if you ever found anything?
if anyone knows of anywhere I can find some hokie stone or a replica of the hokie stone? been searching high and low all over on line and I cant find nothing!
I hope that he is still around. I finally have a house with a basement. And it needs to be appropriately adorned in Hokie Stone.
I've got it and you CAN buy is smaller quantities... Let me know if still interested.
I'll ask my wife, about 5 years ago she got me a piece of Hokie Stone that matches the one above the tunnel for Christmas.
that's what I need! just the one piece. ive seen it. I think in the bookstore or campus emporium a couple years back and I should have got it then and didn't. now I cant find it anywhere.
She bought it from the book store. Sorry.
Unless you know an employee that works at the university owned quarry that will steal you some, the only place you can get it is from the bookstore.
https://www.bkstr.com/virginiatechstore/search/keyword/stone
its on backorder. forever basically lol. and to small for what I'm trying to do. appreciate the help. but looks like everyones running into the same things I am finding.
Find a landscaper that sells limestone for whatever use you need it for and see if their stock matches Hokie Stone. Your best bet is to ask landscaping companies local to SW Virginia.
The University Bookstore still sells official pieces for $100-200 per:
Bookstore Hokie Stone
The Quarry is part of the Facilities group and is technically a high-wall surface mine. Access to the site is restricted, and they are operating full-tilt to maintain production for campus construction.
Over the past couple years, control over true Hokie Stone has been tightened and pieces that "fall off a truck" are not a thing. Official requests other than for construction have to go through a pretty demanding process, even for things that might seem to make sense. For things like departmental awards -> see above, Bookstore.
That said - there are a lot of veins of good looking limestone in the area.... So someone with a good jackhammer, the right blade and saw can make some really nice looking non-Hokie Stone. Just sayin'....
If you want to do a wall with something similar, Eldorado Stone makes a veneer stone that is similar. I used it on my house. It has too much brown but you could use less of those pieces. The shapes are not uniform rectangles is the biggest difference.
For those interested, and for a limited time, if you are interested in a Hokie stone fireplace or accent wall I have what you need. I came across this forum simply by googling "Hokie stone" so I wanted to offer it here 1st. I felt like it was meant to be. My father graduated in 1961 and my daughter in 2018. I've been a Hokie fan my whole life and both of my parents were born in Pearisburg. I know what a big deal this is and how hard this product is to come across. Full disclosure, it's not the exact blend ( You know the deal with the Hokies quarry ) however it is 20% authentic and the other 80% is a dead ringer.
It's even a Dolomite limestone like the original. I know Hokies have dispersed all over the country and would like to bring a little of Blacksburg to their home in the form of Hokie stone. The blend I have is called "Blacksburg blend" and it's just now become available. It is a natural stone, not a man made product. But it is sawn thin on the back to make it 1"-1.5" thick for easy installation. I am currently building an E-Commerce web site to sell veneer stone ( that's the business I am in ) and will include this stone on that web site if it's still available when I launch it. But if you or anyone you know is interested please respond and we'll exchange information and I can get you some pictures. Again, as it stands, it has not been offered publicly before, it is limited in quantity for obvious reasons ( hard to get and hard to match ), and I will not be able to offer it for a long period of time. But I know there is an interest, and I can supply the closest match you'll ever find to what's on the buildings at Va. Tech w/ some of the stone being EXACTLY what's on the buildings at Va. Tech. Let the games begin Hokies, this might be a once in a lifetime offering and I can ship it right to your front door...... Go Hokies
For the exterior enclosure walls on campus they use a product from Boxley. Just call them and ask for the Hokie stone replica block.
Yes, on some of the walls. Most these days we just use the real thing. Arriscraft or Rock cast make the fake stuff.
I was walking past the retaining wall near Major Bill/Upper Quad and a mason chipped off a fragment that struck me in the head. Who am I to argue with the Hokie gods that I should have this piece of Hokie Stone?
When we were in school they left pallets of it sitting around the construction sites of new buildings. I may or may not have known people that would drive by late at night and everyone jumped out of the car and got themselves a piece as a souvenir. Or so I've heard.
Username checks out.
When I was in school, we got to tour the mine through the mining department. You could find a current student and see if they still do this. We got to fill up our backpacks with Hokie Stone.
On a similar note, has anyone found a good Hokie Stone wallpaper? Actual stone probably wouldn't be good for the acoustics in a theater room.
Bonus point if anyone knows where to get a giant mural/picture of lane stadium (9'x16').
Bonus point if anyone knows where to get a giant mural/picture of lane stadium (9'x16'). fathead?
I just got this last week. 4ft by 3ft from fat head
check with folks who print Car/van wraps they've got printers that can run 8-10'+ wide.
As for the photo I'd get one from Ivan Morozov
Thanks. I saw that one, but I was thinking more along the lines of covering the entire 16ft x 9ft wall.
How does it look?