I'm putting stone on the floor 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 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 .
- posted
9 years ago