There are many skills that we have learned while working on the basement, and learning how to install fireplace stone has definitely been one of the trickiest. It took some trial and error, and a few stones falling off (yes, falling off...) for us to figure out how to move forward with the stone. A couple of tricks that we learned were to use more water in the mortar, spray the back of the stone, and spray the wall.
Here is hubby putting on the scratch coat. At this point I was pretty convinced that this was not a project we should be attempting to tackle.
He did the scratch coat on a Saturday morning, we started with the stone late afternoon on Sunday and finished the stone approx Thursday night that week. We still had to grout, but we were pleased to have the stone up in less than a week. The photo below is after 2-3 different evenings of installing stone. I joked that I was moon-lighting as a stone mason that week... In a couple of these photos you can see the stone on the floor in the bottom of the picture. I spent some quality time laying out the stone for the entire fireplace wall on the floor so it could be quickly and easily transferred to the wall. Since we mixed two different colors of stone, this was definitely necessary to make sure the color was balanced. It also helped to make sure the joints of the stones did not line up (we wanted a staggered look).
Right before leaving on our trip for Disney we finished the fireplace by grouting. We didn't grout between every stone, just filled in the gaps using a grout bag. Two days before leaving for Florida we had the fireplace company return to complete the set-up of the fireplace – it works!
You can read more about the fireplace install here.
The best thing about this fireplace? It kicks off some serious heat, which is important in Minnesota! In the end, we are pretty proud of our work!
Linking to: Thrifty Decor Chick, house by hoff, Remodelaholic
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