Cultured stone installation success

[Heartman]

After initially struggling with the installation of cultured stone over my brick fireplace, I thinned out my mortar mix and made great headway this weekend. Thanks to a tip from a friend, I found the right mix ration and the rocks stuck like glue! I had been mixing my mortar way too dry - the addition of enough water to create an almost cake batter consistency really helped.

[solbes]

I did this about 8 years ago on our basement fireplace. I initially mixed it too dry too. I was about 10 stones into the installation, when BANG (first stone fell & broke). 20 seconds later BANG. You get the picture.

Mixing a little wet is the way to go. Need some suction power.

[LundExplorer]

I had the same deal happen when I installed stone veneer on the front of my house, I replaced the old brick. The mixing instructions on the mortar bag makes mortar that is way too dry. I found that I had to add probably 50% more water than it called for to get them to stick. Also found that on a high humidity day it was tougher to get the stone to stick than a drier day.