Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
serraoj

Real stacked stone panels

serraoj
13 years ago

I have a question about how to install real stacked stone

panels around a 12" raised spa.

The panels are 6" tall by 15" long.

The tile guy who works for my PB said he can cut the panels to go around the radius of the spa.

I'm concerned about what it would look with the cuts.

I just can't seem to picture it in my mind how you can cut a straight panel, and make it curve around the spa without seeing where the cuts are?

Has anyone ever used this kind of panel, or know how they can do it, and not look bad?

Comments (5)

  • kspoolman
    13 years ago

    What is the outer diameter of the spa? If its a 10' o.d. then its possible. You will still probably be able to spot the cuts, but to make the radius, the 15" panel would have to be cut down. It would still be somewhat segmented, but you may be the only one who notices.

    Of course a loose stone would be better on a curved wall.

    Grout color selection is critical to making it blend.

  • serraoj
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    kspoolman-thank you for the reply.I will have to check on
    the diameter.

  • nypoolnovice
    12 years ago

    We used stone veneer on our spa. It came glued together in 6x24 panels. Our spa OD is 10'.

    The first few panels I cut apart along the glued joints with a wet saw. But it was messy and slow, and hard to cut exactly along the joint. Then I discovered that baking them in the oven at 400 degrees will weaken the glue just enough to break on the joints, and I broke up the panels into individual pieces of stone. You have to do it before they cool too much, so get good oven mitts.

    After you break up into individual stones, you need to grind off the glue from the top and bottom of the pieces. We used a portable belt sander upside down on a bench, and pushed the stone down on it. I actually turned my wife loose on this step, she did 50 SF of stone, about 1200 pieces all by herself over a few nights.

    We set a 1" leveling strip with luan plywood, and fixed the stone to the spa with thinset. Actually, "we" isn't really accurate, my wife did this step too.

    It was a a little tedious, start to finish. But we couldn't find the quartzite in the color we wanted as individual pieces. We did see some ledgestone pieces online at a place in PA. But she really wanted this other stuff. And we are really happy about how it turned out. Some pics of our almost done project here:

    Here is a link that might be useful: our almost done pool

  • serraoj
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    nypoolnovice: Great job on your pool! Is that granite your using on the spillways from the spa?
    I came came yesterday, and the tile guy my PB uses cut the
    panels into squares,and did a small curve of the spa
    with them. I told him to remove them they look stupid, and he agreed. We decided to use tile for the remainder of the spa.We have the stacked stone panels on our raised bond beam, and they look really nice. Will post pics. when done.
    Thank you for your response,sounded like alot of work , but well worth it!

  • nypoolnovice
    12 years ago

    Thanks! We are in the home stretch. The travertine decking is in 17 crates in the driveway, patiently waiting for me to install it. Then I just need the fire bowl and I'm done for a while. Woo hoo.

    Yes the spillovers are granite. It was easy and pretty cheap, and we really like them. I made plywood templates and my wife went to the granite shop and had them made. I think it was about $200 for both spillovers with the little side pieces. If you do it, get them honed, not polished. We did a mock-up with a polished piece and it was big time slippery, so we went with honed. And no matter how much of a rule-nazi you are, there will be kids jumping from them from time to time.

    Good luck with your project!