I'm putting stone on the floor done , and it looks good and up the wall
behind and on the left of my wood burning stove . The floor is done , and in
a week or so I'll move on to the wall . My question is whether I need to
leave a small space between the stone and the sheetrock or to let the stone
touch the wall .
I had originally planned to leave "ducts" behind the stone for convective
circulation . I have decided that the return doesn't merit the extra work
since we'll have a big ceiling fan in the room to keep heat from stagnating
at the ceiling . The rocks are all free stuff from our land , and I've got
them graded by thickness from 4" down to around 2" . Thicker stones will be
used lower down . Since I have leftover materials from the shower project ,
I'm using a mix of 5 masonry mix sanded 1 portland , 3 sand , and 1 gray
thinset mortar . I mix it up dry as a premix and make small batches as I can
use them before it sets . This gives a very sticky mud when mixed on the dry
side that worked very well on the floor . I expect it will do the same on
the wall . Corrugated brick ties will be used at about 10-15 inch intervals
to make sure the wall remains a wall and not a pile of rocks and mud on the
floor my brother made that mistake when he laid up a fireplace surround of
volcano rocks many years ago ... .

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Snag