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Old 07-26-2006, 09:26 PM
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b_james b_james is offline
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The stone I used was the Eldorado Stone (Nantucket Stacked Stone) from IXL. Talk to Fraser Powel, Mention Bryan James (guy with fish tank) hes the guy I delt with. The retailers/installers will aways recommend using a proper substrate such as lath mesh, morter ect. but he told me "off the record" because its indoors and not exposed to freeze thaw conditions that you can just use PL400 construction adhesive - I would recommend the PL Premium instead - its basically the same but does not have an odour. I went through about 20 LARGE tubes of the PL400 and all I can say is the house stunk for weeks after.

IKL also sells Owens Corning "Cultured Stone" brand but in most cases it has to be ordered where as IXL should have stock of all Eldorado stone. Another reason I went with Eldorado is that it look more realistic, more depth and color variation than the Cultured Stone brand. Also it was quite a bit less expensive.

Installation was quite easy all you need is a masonary blade for your chop saw - assuming you have one. You can even rent one from Home depot. The blade is the same that is uded for cutting tile - looks like a solid black discthat feels like a sandpapery mesh. You can pick them up for about $8 a blade. 1 would probably do, but it doesnt hurt to get an extra as they do wear down pretty quick. Cutting is very messy - lot os white fine power/dust becasue the rock is actually made of a light weight pourous concrete. As far as you existing wall, Im not sure how durable your paint is but it might be a good Idea to rough it up a bit with a course sandpaper. It only took me a day to do all the rock work - mind you thats without a nagging wife pointing out everything your doing wrong.
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