I'm going to show you how to lay a stacked stone feature wall.
The tools we require for the job is some adhesives, some trowels, some stack bond, cutting equipment,
safety equipment, mixing, straight edge, ruler, and some cleaning.
A natural stacked bond wall creates a stylish backdrop to this outdoor area.
It's going to enhance the whole experience out here, especially cooking a barbecue.
It's going to look awesome.
Our builder has done all the right things for us.
Make sure our stud wall is correct and our board is fastened correctly.
So our first step now is to seal the board, so we're going to apply a silicone concealer
on the joints and then a primer onto the wall itself.
The primer will allow the tiling cement to adhere to it correctly.
Before tiling, make sure the substrate is nice and clean and not damp.
Now that we've cleaned down, I'm going to silicone the edges and then seal the board.
The silicone we're going to use for this job is suitable for outdoor use.
When taking off excess silicone, always use an ice cream stick, going up to the sides
and then down against the board.
We've completed our siliconing, so we'll now do our priming.
Refer to your instructions on the packet.
It'll tell you the correct ratio to water to primer.
Apply the primer with either a brush or a roller.
In this case, we only use a brush.
It's only a small area.
Just make sure you cover the whole area.
So we finished priming.
It requires about 15 minutes to dry properly before we can start laying.
So we've done that across the whole of our substrate.
Our next step now is to dry-lay our first course of stacked stone.
Stacked stone is manufactured from natural stone and as such, it's going to have some
variations in color and texture, but also in thickness as well.
So before you lay it, try it in different fashions, and that way you get the best look
that you're after.
So we've laid our first dry course, and we can see that there's a bit of cutting to do.
So we're going to cut a particular section here first.
So I've taken my measurements, I'm marking it out with my set square on both sides.
So the next job now is to cut it.
So now that we've dry-laid the first course, we're going to take it out of the way, and
mix up our glue.
This particular adhesive is a two-part mix powder and liquid.
We're just following the instructions as per manufacturer.
We've mixed up our glue.
Our next step now is to get rid of the dry course that we've laid there.
We're going to put a bead of silicone at the very back of the bench top.
That allows the bottom course to seal to the bench top.
We don't want any silicone at the front because it would look unsightly.
So we've mixed our adhesive.
We're going to spread a little bit on to do the first couple of courses, and then we'll
mix some more up.
I always mix a little bit at a time.
This particular type of adhesive goes off very quickly.
As with normal adhesive, the height will be determined by the notch of trowel.
We're using and 8 millimeter trowel here.
Unlike conventional tiling, this doesn't require a data line at the bottom to start with.
We're going to lay from the bottom and work our way up to the top, and our cut will be
at the top.
So when laying stacked bond, unlike normal tiling where you would try and keep it symmetrical,
with stacked bond you want to try and keep it as natural looking as possible.
So when you do your overlaps on your joins, they don't have to be in the middle.
They can be off centered and so forth.
It makes no difference.
Whatever looks good with the particular stacked bond you're using.
So I'll continue making my cuts and I'll continue going up the wall until it's all finished.
So all of our stacked stone's up, except for the top level.
Looking really, really good at the moment, so what we're going to do is cut the top level
of the stacked stone.
I've measured the remaining area, and we've made the decision that we're going to just
go with the three fingers.
I'm going to cut through the back of that with my angle grinder, and just chip off that
one section.
Now that we've scored across the back on the glue line, we're just going to tap this section
off.
This top level is going to be easier for me to apply the adhesive to the back of the stone
than to try and trowel it up on that small section.
Well, the final bits in.
It looks amazing.
And that's how you lay stacked stone feature wall.