cultured stone ? - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

wellbuilthome · 08-15-2008, 09:46 PM

Hi all , I have a job with a brick front . Its 4'x44' . The HO wants to change to cultured stone. Ive been doing brick and stone for a long time . Ive never done cultured stone . And have no Idea how long it would take us. I could brick the wall in 2 days easy. but the stone ? Could I read the box and learn to lay the stone with out going crazy. I think we would shoot on the wire and coat it the first day and lay the stone in to days . The HO wants eldorado stone with no joints . seems real easy . I dont have any one to do this type of work and its kinda small . I would like to learn how to do the CS . I think i could get it done for around 20sf +- This is a small part of a large job . Should i go for it?

JPC2 · 08-15-2008, 09:50 PM

If you can do real stone, this stuff is a breeze. We call it lick'em stick'em. Your numbers are right on for this part of the country.

Eldorado makes corners and caps too.

wellbuilthome · 08-15-2008, 10:21 PM

I was thinking i would use lime stone or blue stone on top with eather stone face or fired face I have a bunch .Would this match up ? I like the corners. How would i water proof between the top of my slab and my sill plate .Should i just hang the lath over edge of the slab ?

JPC2 · 08-15-2008, 10:42 PM

Yes, that's exactly right. Limestone works great with the grays and cool based colors - depends on the color of the cultured stuff. Around here we also get a salmon colored stone that works with the browns.

The range of cultured stone is huge. An associate of mine who has a crew that does stone veneer found a cultured product that reproduces a brick look without real brick. It's a 2" cultured product (not fired) that you stick to the wall and grout in with a grout bag. The guys absolutely fly laying it up.

I've had several two-story fireplaces done with cultured and each time the crew does it in two days.

J&A IslandWide · 08-15-2008, 10:45 PM

Cultered stone goes on much easier than real stone.I get 30sf for this kinda work.

stacker · 08-16-2008, 09:01 AM

you should be able to do that wall in about 3 hours.not including time to put on the lath.figure the whole day.

there is no need to scratch coat the lath and come back the next day to lay it.scratch coat lath in a 4x4 area.come right back over with a thicker coat and apply stone.since they want dry stack,you will need butter the stone and make sure no mud squeezes out.lay them tight,run you finger or trowel across stone before you lay the next to keep oozing to a min.and since this is dry stack,there maybe no need for the secon coat after scratch coat,just butter the back.

wellbuilthome · 08-19-2008, 02:44 AM

What about frost ? should the stone go under ground or end at the ground ? Ive seen The CS pop off around the bottom . I was thinking it was because of frost.

stacker · 08-19-2008, 11:33 AM

depends on what you like.i prefer to take the stone below grade about 3 inches or so.