Fake stone work

[fran35]

Hey guys,
I am thinking of finishing behind my wood stove with the "lick em, stick em" rocks, otherwise know as manufactured stone. Does anyone happen to know if those things are considered combustibles? I figure that they are mainly concrete and should be good to go, but wanted to see if anyone had any input.

 

[rwhite]

My worry would be the glue. If these are peel and stick the glue might get hot and offgas. Sure someone else will chime in here but I would look and the ones with no glue and use a high temp cement to stick them.

Great avatar by the way! Semper Fi brother.

 

[plenzlerjm]

Yeah...I'd also worry about the glue and fumes released every time it got hot. Masonry product may be way to go. Semper Fi!

 

[begreen]

Cultured stone is fine, when cemented in place with mortar, but not with adhesive.

 

[Iembalm4aLiving]

Cultured stone are made of concrete. They're not going to burn.

Mine are 10 years old and holding up just fine. They still get compliments today.

 

[Trktrd]

Beautiful job ! I've been thinking of doing the same thing.

 

[kayakkeith]

Have had no problem with the stone I put up - this is a pic before we put up some wood beams on the end. We have a air gap of about a inch or so between original wall and then concrete board which is on strips of that same concrete board to make the air gap. The stone was put up then with a masonry mix and no problems first year of burning. When I had a new chimney put in we knocked off some of the stone and put it back up with some adhesive - it was just stuff that we put in a chalking gun. Much easier then the masonry mix and no problems as of this season.

I probably can find more pics of the actual construction of the wall if you need - just let me know

 

[raybonz]

My cultured stone has been there for around 25 years and they are mortared in place and still look fine..

 

[Highbeam]

Great pics folks. My stove has plain painted sheetrock behind it and I would love to pu tup the stone. The stone would need to be something that could possibly be real though, as in, regular people wouldn't know for sure if it was cultured or not. You can really tell with some of the designs out there that it is fake. All three above, and especially GD9704's, meet the "real" looking requirement.

Clearance to combustibles is a set number. Nomatter what you add to the combustible face, so long as it is not combustible, the clearance is still measured to that first combustible face. So in theory, you could put layers of stone right up to the stove body and it still meets specs.

Remember that the minimum clearance to combustibles is just that, clearance to combustibles. So long as you are outside of that distance, you can use plywood for a surface treatment.

 

[raybonz]

Great pics folks. My stove has plain painted sheetrock behind it and I would love to pu tup the stone. The stone would need to be something that could possibly be real though, as in, regular people wouldn't know for sure if it was cultured or not. You can really tell with some of the designs out there that it is fake. All three above, and especially GD9704's, meet the "real" looking requirement.

Clearance to combustibles is a set number. Nomatter what you add to the combustible face, so long as it is not combustible, the clearance is still measured to that first combustible face. So in theory, you could put layers of stone right up to the stove body and it still meets specs.

Remember that the minimum clearance to combustibles is just that, clearance to combustibles. So long as you are outside of that distance, you can use plywood for a surface treatment.

HB I think the cultured stone looks as real as the real thing aside from it being much lighter nobody knows it isn't real..

Ray

 

[Highbeam]

The particularly fake jobs I've seen include repeating patterns, repeating stones (four pink rocks shaped like Maui), Corners that look very fake, and especially the stacked ledge looking stones that have like four or five stacked layers in a single cultured stone.

Any single cultured stone, by itself, seems to look very real in all cases.

I would like to rebuild my hearth to match so I've been putting off the construction of the back wall.

 

[Hogwildz]

Highbeam,
I did quite a bit of Owen Corning's cultured stone in my addition. One spot where the Englander will sit in front of when I finally get everything done. And I think you can't tell the difference even by feeling it, let alone looking at it. There are a few others out there that look just as good, and yes there are some that are so fake looking, it should be a crime.
Back in the early 90's we were roofing new developments, and the stone they used was simply horrible looking, between the shape, color and yes patterns, it looked like crap.
I have pics of my stone work on here somewhere. If you want I can post some more so easier to find. I went with Dry stack ledgestone, and it turned out great! And it was my first time doing it. It is very tedious over a large area though. I am no pro, as it took me about 12 hours to do a 5' x 5' area at a time. But I am also very particular and wanted it perfect, which it is not, but damn close.