Cladding fireplace with stack stone

[loggie]

Hello,

I'm looking to clad an open brick fireplace with stack stone. I was thinking of attaching cement sheets to the front and sides to give the stone a flat smooth surface to attach on to. Does this seem like a reasonable way to go about this?

Cement sheet - https://www.bunnings.com.au/james-ha...62sqm_p0715374
Adhesive between cement sheet and painted brick - https://www.selleys.com.au/products/...ls-rapid-cure/
Screws for added support - https://www.bunnings.com.au/ramset-1...-pack_p2260701

Thank you for reading and have a great day

[redracer01]

Hello @loggie,

That's beautiful work. Straight out of those design magazines! It just updates the look and feel of the whole area. Excellent touch on those lights. Amazing work all around!

Red

[loggie]

thanks for the kind words @redracer01  and @Jason 

I made the light surround using pine moulding. 1 piece of this 92x11 straight edge and 3 pieces of this 42x11 with a colonial edge profile with mitered corners. I chose the colonial profile as it was similar to the 140 colonial baseboards the room has, which I plan on keeping after working on the flooring. The 11mm thickness also matched the lip of the existing crown moulding for a seamless transition.

If someone is looking for a more modern look, consider pencil round or tri quad.

[daisie]

Hi can I please find out whether its possible to install these stone panels on a less thick cement sheet? I have built-in shelves next to a brick fireplace (similar to the picture above) and was wanting to have a flush finish with the shelving if possible.

On the bunnings website I found a 9mm board - https://www.bunnings.com.au/james-hardie-villaboard-2400-x-1200-x-9mm-fc-lining-2-88sqm_p0710772 would something like this work if bolted down using the 60mm bolts mentioned above into the existing brick? thank you

[Jason]

Hi @daisie,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. We're so pleased to have you join us and look forward to reading about all your projects and plans for around the house and garden. We're sure you will get plenty of helpful information, advice and inspiration from our amazing community members.

The ever-helpful @MitchellMc will be more than happy to assist you with your question when he is back on the site on Friday. Thanks for your patience in the meantime. Let me also tag @loggie and @redracer01 who might like to share their thoughts.

Thanks,

Jason

[loggie]

Hi @Jason thanks for the tag and @daisie I'm happy that my project has inspired you to redo your fireplace as well.

There was a lot of conflicting information online about the use of villaboard for a stack stone substrate when I was researching online. I spoke to James Hardie to clarify and they directed me to their villaboard installation guide which suggests the product you linked to should be ok. To be on the safe side, if you do use 9mm boards, I suggest following instructions on page 10, 11 and 16 of the above link with bolts every 400mm and using support angles every metre or so. For the support angles, I used a few of these 20x600 pieces (can be cut with a grinder or tin snips) and bent with pliers.

There's also a clause on page 16, to not exceed 3m in height.

This document from Ardex was another one I referred to at the time. Page 2 talks about villaboard and the use of support angles.

[daisie]

Thanks you loggie for the detailed information and sharing your research in your fantastic project. Will have a read through the documents in detail.

[MitchellMc]

Hi @daisie,

It's great to see you've already received a helpful reply from @loggie. If you have further questions, please feel free to start your own discussion including images of the area and as much information as possible so we can provide a solution.

I'll be looking forward to following along with your project.

Mitchell

[daisie]

Hi Mitchell, 

Thank you. Yes the information loggie provided was very helpful. And I'm glad the 9mm board looks like a suitable option. 

My initial confusion about whether or not 9mm cement board would be sufficient was because of the following links I came across. 

The instructions under the fibrous cement board section in the following link said minimum 16mm

https://www.norstone.com.au/installation-guide/

Whereas page 7 in this link specifically shows 9mm as a suitable substrate.

https://veneerstone.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Installing-onto-stone-sheet.pdf

Sorry for not attaching a photo of what I was looking to do. Here's a sample. 

 

[Jason]

Thanks for the clarification @daisie,

Please let us know if you need any further assistance. We're here to help.

Jason