Rounded castle-like turret w/stone exterior?

[Anonymous]

My wife and I are building a new home. We found plans that currently have a octogonal shaped room off the front of the house. My wife would like to have that rounded, but the builder said that rounding the foundation, and framing and walls would add $20K to the price. My question is, can we keep the foundation and framing and walls octogonal, but use the mortar and stone to make the exterior look rounded? How difficult is something like this, and does it add much cost, besides the extra labor of placing the stone?

Thanks in advance.

[Rich]

I would agree that it's much more expensive to curve your foundation. I'm currently going through this on a residence. We contacted Gates Forming Systems to custom bend telespar for our gang forms. I spent around $27000 additional by doing this - mostly because of the shear size of the wall we are constructing. That additional money is only for formwork - not labor to build it.
Rounding the masonry will definately add cost in additional labor, mortar, fill block, layout time, etc.. Most of that cost will be in labor and a small portion in material. To give an actual amount would be difficult. Best bet would be to do a Time and Materials with a Guaranteed Maximum Price set for it. Overall it's not that much more difficult except for making sure the layout is correct. There may be additional steel or something to bear the areas that overhang the foundation line.
Maybe Shanley has some more information.

[Shanley]

I agree the brickshelf would have to be modified for the overhang, but that shouldn't be a problem...I would expect the mason would have to use a custom anchor to tie the veneer to the back-up...I would look at the detail at the top of the wall, I would anticipate some modifications would be required here...That said, extra costs would be involved but I don't think they would be prohitive

[grumpydasmurf]

I saw a house like this going up and with a few modifications it could be my retirement home. I think these kinds of houses need to be HUGE to get the full effect but it's a brilliant architectural idea.

Oh yeah, and this one IS round, not octogonal. That's strange too since the facade isn't actually brick, but it's fibercement panels. I dunno how they installed that! I sat there last week infront of the house trying to figure it out. (I couldn't actualy go up to the house since it's occupied and I didn't want to be arrested :) )