Stone Cobbler

Flooring contractor Dallas Day, left, from Day Flooring Co., talks with stone mason Ian Deans about a fireplace hearth for a new home on Rivercrest Drive.

Ian Deans stands in front of the rock fireplace he built for Mike and Cindy Leichner's new home in Vancouver. Deans has worked as a stone mason and independent contractor in Clark County since 1992.

Vancouver stone mason Ian Deans employs elements of form and function in artistry that serves a dual purpose as conversation starter and vessel for flames.

His latest creation is a fireplace that could easily pass for Abstract Expressionism, played out in rock work that spans from a floor-level hearth to a 19-foot-tall vaulted ceiling. The fireplace is the centerpiece of a new 4,500-square-foot custom home overlooking the Columbia River, being built for Mike and Cindy Leichner of Vancouver.

Designed for the Leichner home's central living area, the rock fireplace clearly establishes the home's Northwest style. A bank of nearby windows overlooking an outdoor deck complements the stone structure and hearth in a room designed to host numerous family parties, Cindy Leichner said.

"We wanted a great-room with the fireplace at the center," she said.

Deans used a dry-stack technique for the structure's outer veneer, mortaring stones from behind to create the illusion of randomly stacked stones without visible mortar in between the rocks.

He works with all sorts of mason materials, but natural stone is his favorite.

"You can get a bit more creative with it," he said.

Deans moved to Clark County from Ireland in 1980 and has worked as a Vancouver-based independent contractor since 1992. He builds between two and three fireplaces a year, starting with a heap of rocks ordered up through Vancouver mason supply company Mutual Materials.

Store sales associate Bruce Bidwell said the rock Deans used on the Leichner's fireplace is called Cabinet Gorge. It comes from the Idaho-Montana border, where long-ago lava flows and later glacial activity formed the rocks' color variations.

"People like the stripes and striations," Bidwell said.

Jigsaw puzzle

Deans hand-selected each rock from the pile to build the fireplace structure, which took more than a month to complete. He started by finding rocks with 90-degree angles for the fireplace corners, then he carefully and tightly stacked rocks in between the corners for color.

"It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. You find the pieces that fit," Deans said.

When they don't fit, Deans cuts the stones to size with a chisel or gas-powered saw.

The work is a painstaking process, said Brandon Edmiston, owner of Talon Development and Construction, the Camas-based general contractor of the Leichner's new home.

"He (Deans) spent hours fitting the rocks together. He really has an artists' eye," Edmiston said.

He said new home buyers typically don't order wood-burning fireplaces. The units, which cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to build, are more than double the price of natural gas-burning units because wood-burning fireplaces are constructed entirely of masonry materials.

"It's really an investment," said Edmiston, who recommended Ian Deans' work to the Leichners.

"You have to find a mason who enjoys the artistic process," he said. ""It takes a lot of dedication to give it the same effort every day, and never let the quality drop."

Before breaking ground on their new home, Cindy Leichner said she and her husband waffled a bit over the decision to add the wood- burning fireplace and have it built of natural stone.

"We went back and forth," she said, adding, "Cost was a big factor."

As she watched the fireplace take shape during visits to her new home's construction site, Leichner said she was pleased with the results.

"I knew we'd made the right choice once I saw how straight the angles were," she said. "Ian is truly an artist."

Edmiston said he often suggests Ian Deans for stonework in the two or three custom homes Talon Development builds annually.

Deans said he generally has enough work to keep him busy year- round.

"People say I'm an artist," he said, "but you know, I'm just doing my job."

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