Stone veneers are a man made product consiting mainly of portland cement and pigments. Stone veneers are commonly called "Cultured Stone", this is a brand name similar to tissue vs. "Klenex".

Veneers are lighter weight than real stone meaning no footing (for support) is required. This helps offset the cost of your foundation when building a new home. It's also a great advantage in remodeling or interior use. Stone veneers are typically 50% to 75% less than real stone. The choices in style and color you have in stone veneer are quite vast in comparison to really stone. Unless you pay big buck to have at really stone shipped from a differant region of the country or the world for that matter, you will be limited to quarrys within your geographical region. This is not the case with stone veneer. Take Eldorado Stone for example, many of their stones are molded from quarrys in Italy!