Weight limit for stone veneer on residential wall?
daves88
| Posted in General Questions on
I want to put stone veneer on our office wall that is 9ft tall by 10ft wide. This is a permiter wall in our ranch house, so it is holding up the roof. The stone I’m looking at is 8.5 lbs /sq ft and I would be putting cement board over the existing sheet rock. This will be approaching 1000 lbs and I’m just wondering is this is too much for the wall. It’s a fairly new house and is 2×6 construction.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
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Replies
Dave,
Are you talking about installing the stone on the interior or the exterior of your wall?
Thanks for the reply Martin! We are installing this on the interior. We are trying to make an accent wall in our office. This is the stone we are looking at. Specs say 8.5 lbs per sq/ft and I’m assuming at least another 3lbs per sq/ft for Sheetrock and the cement board I will have to install.
https://www.norstoneusa.com/products/aksent-modern-tiles/
Dave,
My guess is that the 2x6 studs and foundation can easily handle the load, but I'm open to hearing from any engineers who are reading this thread.
What you really need to pay attention to is the fastening details, to make sure that everything stays put. If you haven't done so yet, you might want to call up Norstone (877-210-9248) and ask to speak to a technical representative for answers to your questions.
If this is a perimeter wall resting on foundation, you'll be fine. The stone only weighs about 100 pounds per linear foot, and a 2x6 wall with pretty much any floor system can handle that.
If it's an interior wall, especially one parallel with the floor framing, you would probably want to reinforce it.
Great, thanks for the replies. I did talk to Norstone and they said anything under 12ft tall and I should be fine. Thinking of it in lbs per liner foot really makes sense and with the weight distributed over that length, it isn’t really that much.