cost of installed eldorado stone?

[tenax]

what should i expect to pay per square foot installed these days? fyi, i am in alberta canada for what it's worth..the quote in canadian dollars i have at this point is 1750 for 50 square feet of material and labour. (i do removal of the ugly 70's tile and put up the backboard.

 

[Nicholas]

When I built my house a few years back I was faced with the same delima for the front wall.
My brother was building a house at the same time and had stone on his front wall.
He settled on a reputable company and had them install.
I was cash poor and finaly bit the bullit and did it my self.
It was slow going, but enjoyable. there was nothing magical or technical about it.
when it was all said and done, my job was MUCH better than the "pros".

All you need is a small mortor pan, trowel, 4-1/2 angle grinder with diamond blade - all that could be had for less than $100.00

Nick

 

[tenax]

angle grinder to cut the stone as necessary i assume?

 

[TheFlame]

The materials to do 50 sqft (stone, mortar, lathe, backerboard or tar paper) will cost you no more than $500. It's a good DIY job to save $1250.

 

[tenax]

yeah. that's a heck of a saving and sorely tempting..i'm pretty good at handyman stuff..shed building, re-roofed my house, replaced toilets, small, plumbing, small electrical projects..a friend of my wife's said if i can re-roof a house, i can do this job...but, i have some fear of "messing it up" as it is a real appearance project.

 

[TheFlame]

Eldorado has videos on their web site on how to do the installation. It doesn't look that hard, at least that's what I'm counting on since I have about 50 sqft of stone and materials in my garage right this moment waiting for the end of burning season...

 

[TheFlame]

Oh, and I've been told a wet saw works well to cut the stone. That's what I plan on using.

 

[Nicholas]

Flame,
I had the same fealings about it to, my job eneded up better than ANY "pro" job I have seen.
The wet saw will make more of a mess than needed. The angle grinder with a diamond blade will cut through there like butter (the Elderado is a "soft" concrete)
A cheap grinder and blade would run you about $60.00
The biggest asset you have is "time" and the "want" to do a good job, the "pro crews" lack that.
I opened all the boxes and laid all the stone out, some times I found the stone I wanted in 10 seconds, sometimes 10 min.

 

[tenax]

this is great stuff guys..i'm getting more and more motivated thanks to you..the one tricky thing i have to deal with is my natural gas fireplace insert. the insert goes into a zero clearance fireplace which has a surface flush with the drywall (underneath the current tile). i was thinking i would to put stone right up the edge of the frame of my ngas fireplace insert for the best appearance rather than just to the edge of the zero clearance fireplace. that will also block the old vent and much of the other cold air that comes around the ngas insert. so it is feasible to lathe and mortar over top of the metal surface of the zero clearance fireplace? the installer who looked at it didn't seem to have any issue with that. also, he suggested using plywood for the backboard. that seems feasible according to the instructions from eldorado, but would cement board be better and if so, why? ps- here's a good link with some pics to a fireplace refinish that would be somewhat similar to my project:

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hi_fireplace/article/0,,DIY_13914_4484880,00.html

 

[tenax]

a few pictures for reference..the existing tile from 1977 (now, why would i want to get rid of that, eh?)

and the fireplace insert into the zero clearance fireplace..you can get a sense of where the zero clearance fireplace frame starts from the broken off piece of tile on bottom left..i think it's prophetic it literally fell off when the guy did the estimate without anyone touching it.. a sure sign it's meant to go..at the top, you can see the frame via the vents of the old zero clearance fireplace with the draft controller..i want to cover all that part..basically, i'd just leave enough room to pull the n gas insert out if it needs servicing..it's self contained so the old zero clearance vents have nothing to do with it.

 

[Gooserider]

The only question I'd ask is if you need to have the zero clearance vents exposed in order to keep the ZC unit approved as a place to have the gas insert... I know when putting in a cordwood insert, you aren't allowed to mode the ZC unit in any way other than to remove the damper, especially not covering the vents....

Remember that the vents are needed to cool the shell of the ZC to keep it's temperatures within the range where it's safe to have it that close to other building materials.

Gooserider

 

[tenax]

thanks again goose and a great tip to watch for..so i called my fireplace distributor installer and it's a direct vent outside and they it's within canadian code in terms of the majority of heat dissipating up the stack so i can make it all nice and pretty that's a napoleon insert by the way..i've had it for about 3 or 4 years now and quite like it.

 

[Gooserider]

thanks again goose and a great tip to watch for..so i called my fireplace distributor installer and it's a direct vent outside and they it's within canadian code in terms of the majority of heat dissipating up the stack so i can make it all nice and pretty that's a napoleon insert by the way..i've had it for about 3 or 4 years now and quite like it.

Great, no problem as long as it's an approved mod... I just didn't want to see you causing yourself a problem by blocking those vents and coming to regret it later. It's a pretty setup, and I'm sure that the doing the stone face will be better looking than those tiles (which actually didn't seem that bad, but...)

Good luck with the project.

Gooserider

 

[tenax]

thanks again..this is a great site..very helpful. hope i can end up helping others on the way