Gluing beach stone to a wall ?

[Dirty Doogie]

I have been making a timber framed privacy wall out the front of the house and decided (sort of spontaneously) to make a 75mm recessed section and do a stone wall type of feature panel in the recess.

The base panel is 19mm plywood cribbed and braced over which I was going to fix a sheet of fibre cement and then glue hand selected and carefully stolen beach stones.

The size of the stones is approximately 150 - 200 mm across and the thickness varies between 25mm and 65 mm. Some stones weigh up to 2.5 kg.

I was wondering if anyone has a glue recommendation for such heavy stones? I think I'm going to have to glue the stones in situ - I was considering taking the panel out and putting it horizointal and gluing stones that way but its going to weigh 180 kg by the time it is done.

Doog

[Make it work]

Are the specially "selected" beach stones smooth and hard like pebbles or do they have loose, flaky & porous surfaces?

[pawnhead]

I'm no expert, but I'd say that a decent tile adhesive would do the job. If they're smooth, then you could rough up the backside with a grinder to get a better key.
If they're on a temporary loan from a beach somewhere, and if you don't plan on fixing them straight away, then It might be an idea to repeatedly submerge them in fresh water for a while, and dry them out between dunkings. This would help dissolve the salts, so it doesn't have an adverse reaction with the adhesive, and you won't get efluorescence on the surface. Probably not a big deal though.

[Dirty Doogie]

Hi Allan and John,

The stones are all hard surface non porous types, basalt, quartz, schist. I have been washing them in a wheel barrow. Last night I tried gluing one of the bigger stones onto the wall with Davco Ultraflex but the stone was just too heavy. This morning I took the wedges and props away from the stone and it just fell straight off breaking the glueline.

I know epoxy resin could hold them but the price .. yikes! I can see this is going to be a possible drama.

I'm going out this morning to talk to tile shops and see if they have some recommendations. I may need to mechanically fix the bigger stones - grr!

Doog

[DNL]

Doogie

How high is the privacy wall going to be? Have you considered wooden or metal strips fixed horizontally across the wall face to provide additional suppport for each layer of stone?

Maybe some timber decking fixed to the front of any horizontal supports so the decking sits flush with the stone face and then adds another dimension to the wall. nice merbau stained up would look very nice. You could add a series of verticals as well to break up the symmetry.

If the stones weigh up to 2.5kg, I would expect you would need to use some form of mortar to ensure the stones adhere, as John indicated, a tile adhesive might be the go. But I would certainly use some form of progressive support for each layer of stone. Overall weight of the wall may come into play though,

Send some pics when done. I think your wall will look fantastic.

cheers

[Dirty Doogie]

Hi DnL, I was thinking the same thing about battens to hold the stones in place until the glue sets.

After talking to some tiling type people yesterday it becomes clear to me that the adhesive is going to be an issue and as you suggest a conventional mortar may be what is required.

One of the main problems is that many stones will have to be packed out to maybe 25mm by the glue/mortar. I'm still experimenting with glues.

I will try and post a pic of the job as it is now so you can get an idea.

The recess is 600 wide x about 1400 high.

[Dirty Doogie]

2 months later ,,,, LOL

[Dirty Doogie]

I'm having problems resizing pics - I have to post them in Myspace then save them back to my computer but then they arent as big as I would like.


Anyway ,after experimenting, the glue I used was Bostick Seal N Flex - a polyurethane type similiar or identical to Sikaflex.

The stones were so heavy I had to cut the backing board into sections which required laying out and numbering stones, then cutting around stone positions , gluing stones back in position then gluing each section onto the recess wall - Phew!

Pic 1 layout of stones
Pic 2 - positions marked and cut lines drawn in orange chalk
PIC 3 - the size of the blobs of polyurethan glue needed for just a smaller stone.

All up took about 2 days actual work - not including trips to beach with a large camera bag.

[Pusser]

Great effort though. It looks like a big box full of stones! Really nice work and unusual.

[juan]

Well done Doog. I like it and reckon it could be copied to make a great water feature - when I finish the bathroom of course.

cheers

[Dirty Doogie]

Thanx Pusser - I like doing stuff I havent tried before!

Juan - I was almost going to ask you if wanted a stone panel like this for your bathroom lol! Cascading into the bath - woo hoo! the glue would stand up!

I think it would be very nice with water running down it personally and becuase there is no grout water will run behind the rocks as well as over them - you know I'm really thinking of opening the wall up at the back and putting a small tank up there and a pump.

As soon as the glue was set on the wall I just had to hose it and the way the water comes down is really nice. Just like a fast running creek -

2 neighbours have come wandering past and asked me if I'd make some panels for them also HEH HEH!

[juan]

I think you have a potential winner there Doog as a water feature wall. Let me know if you float the company I would like a few shares.