A Denver-area company that specializes in manufacturing bricks for building and landscaping hopes its newest product unleashes a "stone age" in the building industry.

Robinson Brick Co., founded in Denver in 1880, unveiled its Robinson Rock in August. The product is made from natural quarried stone that is cut to a thin veneer.

The stone is applied to mortar and can be used on just about anything -- from the exterior of buildings to an interior fireplace. While the rock is only about an inch thick, a building covered with Robinson Rock looks like it's made entirely out of traditional stone.

It would probably be an understatement to say that Robinson Brick is excited about its natural rock veneer. In fact, company President Robert Jaster and Vice President Craig DeVere believe they may have a revolutionary product on their hands.

"You can turn a house into a castle," Jaster said while explaining how easy it would be to transform a dilapidated bungalow with old siding into a respectable cottage using Robinson rock. Rock Bovard, a construction manager with Chandelle Development in Denver, said more people are choosing to build with stone.

"Stone's always a popular option," he said. "People like their buildings to look natural." At a time when stone is one of the most popular looks in residential and commercial building, the reality is that few people can afford to build a home from traditional stone, Jaster said.

Only the "haves" use stone. The "have-nots" turn to manufactured stone, a concoction of cement and coloring that manufactures texture to look and feel like real stone.

Manufactured stone ranges from about $10 to $15 a square foot installed, while traditional stone can reach prices of about $35 a square foot, DeVere said. The company prices Robinson Rock to be comparable with manufactured stone.

"We're trying to get to parity with manufactured stone," Jaster said. "We want to make it possible for anyone who would have put manufactured stone on their house to have real stone." In addition to its lower price, Robinson Rock also eliminates the need for engineering and heavy load-bearing foundations that traditional stone requires. The product comes packaged with a proportion of big and small stones, making it easy to lay out while reducing waste.

If Robinson Rock and manufactured stone are comparable in price, they're worlds apart when it comes to look and quality. Robinson Brick produces its own line of manufactured rock, so the company is a little sensitive to what some people call "phony rock"or "plastic rock." Still, Jaster admits that with natural stone, "There's a beauty there that you can't get any other way."Diane Travis, technical director for the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute in Denver, said that much of the manufactured stone used in Colorado isn't suited for the state's extreme freeze and thaw cycles. While she hadn't seen Robinson Rock, she believes that any natural stone product an inch or more in thickness will prove more durable.

"The artificial products can be correctly applied," she said. "They'll work for a reasonable amount of time. They'll never last as long as real stone."

Before its release, Aster said Robinson Rock passed a series of extreme weather and stress testing. So far, Robinson Brick has released two lines of Robinson Rock in sandstone. The sandstone is quarried from somewhere in Arizona, but the company didn't want to release the quarry's exact location. The company plans to release several more lines in coming months, including limestone, granite and river rock.

Robinson Brick produces 100 million bricks a year in a national market of about 8.5 billion bricks per year, Aster said. In Colorado, the company claims 58 percent of the total market share for bricks and 80 percent of the single-family residential market. The company wouldn't release revenue figures, but did say it had $30 to $50 million in sales in 2000. The company employs about 250 people.

Travis, who worked in architecture in Chicago before joining Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute, said Robinson Brick is highly respected nationwide for its "top-of-the-line" products.

More than 125 distributors sell Robinson's products in 45 states, Canada and Japan, Jaster said.