supporting interior stone veneer

[DoubleStud]

I have a mountain home where I will have a very tall stone veneer (6" thick including mortar) around the fireplace. How do you folks typically support for these scenarios? Do you put beams directly below the veneer or below the wall it is adhered to? How about if you have stone veneer below as well. Do you just add crush blocks in between floor? Support the veneer all the way to foundation? I am always not sure what is the best way to do this. As you can see, some of the veneer is only on main floor, so for sure I will need a beam.

 

[Craig_H]

Whenever I've done that realm of stone thickness, I've had CMU as a backing for it and have used shelf angles to pick up the gravity load. The exception to that is when the client goes super old school with a traditional fireplace rather than a metal insert. In those cases, I often need a concrete slab below the fireplace and I usually extend it out the sides to pick up the stone.

I personally hate these because they dominate the design of the building in many regards, and then they always get cut and cut away as the budget for the project creeps. You start with full bed stone on CMU and end up with thin veneer on wood stud.

 

[phamENG]

I'd hardly consider 6" stone veneer "adhered." Perhaps I'm wrong though? But I'm with Craig - support on CMU or steel (or a combination of both).

 

[DoubleStud]

I dont think CMU is an option. It is all wood framing and steel beams. Yes, it is not adhered. Just wanted to explain the wall next to it. I think I will put beams right below the veneer.

 

[80PercentTruth]

@DoubleStud

I agree -- beam directly below the veneer is absolutely the way to go to support the load.

"Engineers only know about 80% of the truth, the next 10% is very difficult to achieve, and the last 10% impossible. If we are bound to be wrong, we may as well be wrong simply and conservatively."