How to Install Stone Veneers

Stone Wall

Stone veneer creates an attractive appearance for the outer façade of your home. Not only does it look as good as traditional stone walls, but it provides an additional barrier to help protect your walls from the elements. Using stone veneers is cheaper than building a stone wall the old way, and is also much more cost effective.

Things You'll Need

• Metal lath Scratch coat Metal scraper Wheel barrel (for mixing) 2 parts Washed sand and 1 part Portland cement Stone veneers Trowel Kitchen sponge Pail of water

Instructions

1. Check your walls to see if they are made of masonry. Stone veneer adheres well to masonry surfaces, such as brick, cement blocks and concrete. If your surface is made of masonry, skip to Step 3. Otherwise, you will need to prepare the surface to receive the veneer.

2. Prepare the surface. You will need to remove any siding and scrape away any paint that is on the exterior surface. After this is done, you can tack up a metal lath or chicken wire and apply a scratch coat. The scratch coast should consist of 2 parts washed sand to 1 part Portland cement and be applied in a thickness of about ½" with a metal scraper. Once the scratch coat dries, you will have a firm masonry surface to install the stone veneers on.

3. Lay your stone veneers out on the ground. Arrange them in the pattern that you will place them in when they are installed on the wall. This will allow you to see how well the stones flow together, and will also clearly show you if any stones need to be trimmed. Since you will need to work fast before the mortar has a chance to dry, it is important to make any pattern adjustments in advance.

4. Mix the mortar to be used on the stone veneer. You can either buy a Type S mortar or mix your own in a wheel barrel. Similar to the scratch coat you made in Step 2, you can mix a mortar by combining 2 parts washed sand to 1 part Portland cement. Mix the two for a minimum of 5 minutes, until the mortar has a creamy consistency, similar to whipped potatoes.

5. Apply a base coat of mortar to the surface of the wall. Using a trowel, apply a layer of mortar onto the masonry, approximately ½" thick. If you have never installed stone veneers before, you may find it easier to apply the mortar to a small section of the wall, then do another section once you have added all of the veneers to the area you are working on.

6. Moisten the back of your first stone. Dip a kitchen sponge into a pail of water and use it to dampen the back of the stone, on the side that will be placed into the mortar. This helps prevent the stone from absorbing moisture from the mortar, which could cause the mixture to crumble when it dries.

7. Apply a thin coat of mortar to the back of the stone. A layer of mortar around ¼" thick is usually sufficient. This will even out the difference between raised and recessed areas on the stone, helping the stone veneer to create a stronger bond to the wall when it is installed.

8. Press the stone veneer into the wall. After mortar has been applied to the back of the stone, it can be pushed into the mortar on the wall. Push firmly so that the stone is pressed inside the mortar. It is normal for excess mortar to squeeze out from the edges. This can be removed with a trowel or a joint tool.

9. Repeat Steps 6-9 with each consecutive stone. Continue this process until all of the stone veneers have been installed.

Tips & Warnings

• You may periodically get mortar on the face of some of your stones. This should be cleaned before the compound has time to dry. Simply use water and a stiff brush to remove the mortar from the front of the stone veneer.