40" WFO in the New Orleans

[banhxeo76]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Thank you so much for your prayers and concerns.

Got in the house about 2 hours ago and my home & WFO is okay. Thank God for that. There were some trees fell down in the street but there was no major damage. The corp of engineer did a job with the flood wall protection for Orleans Parish.

However, please continue to pray who those lost their homes and loves ones from Hurricanes Isaac. It may have been a weak hurricane, however, it brought in a lot of water and stress to this region.

Once again, thank you all for the prayers.

[SCChris]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Tu, We're praying you dodged the worst of Issac.

Chris

[Gulf]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

We faired well Tu,
Please, let us know something as soon as you find out about the homestead.

[banhxeo76]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Gulf,

Thanks for the prayers. Even though Isaac is not a major hurricane yet, we evacuated about 100 miles west of New Orleans. Staying in the heart of Cajunland to eat some spicy food.

I surely did place a tarp on my WFO. I had to make 4 stops before I can find a tarp because people are buying them like hot cake. Finally found some at Harbor Freight!

Be safe!

[Gulf]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Stone work is looking very nice...........

I second that !! .

Tu,
I see that you found that anything close to the size of the joint could be used to hold a stone in place and let you get on to the next one. Adhesion keeps them from pulling away, but they can surely slide down. Laying out the placement ahead helps too.
Along with the other hurricane preps for the home etc., I intombed my oven in tarps this evening after work. I am sure that you also, have more to worry about than the oven.

Wishing/praying for you and your family the all the best.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Stone work is looking very nice...........

[banhxeo76]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Thanks Russ,
It is just a part of life living here is in the gulf region. On the good note, I finally had a whole Saturday of no rain which allowed me to work on my WFO. Here are the latest on my WFO before Isaac planning to come this way. I am praying that Isaac will be kind to my WFO and my home, (looking around for the wife) in that order.


I really love working with thin veneer stone and there is definitely a learning curve on working with these stones. Since I don't want the natural chop stones to look too uniform because I love the rustic appearance from the old country, it required me to move the stones quite a lot around. As matter of fact, I think I may have moved at least a dozen mortar up stones off the wall after I didn't like the way it looks on the WFO. It really help a lot when I trace the location of the stones before I mortar them up on the wall. Every now and then, I have to step back and take look at it from the distance to make sure I like it.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Tu,

Good luck and be safe with Issac...........

[texman]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Great save on the limestone and the rock looks good. i would think some light muriatic 9:1 would work.
Texman

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

Hey Tu,

I will let you figure it out. I have my rock sitting on a pallet but I going to get my oven cured first. Looks great.........

[banhxeo76]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

So far, I really love how the natural veneer stone look on my WFO so far. I still have a lot a ground (wall) to cover. I am mixing my own mortar (1 part cement, 1 part lime, and 5 part fine sand) to stick the stone to the surface. Usually, I would have to hold the stone for a minutes or so (per Gulf's instruction) so that you allow the stone to get stuck on the wall. Later on, I will come back with a white mortar to fill in the gap by using a piping bag.

It really help to laid down the all of the stones on the floor and organize by size so that you that you can just easy glance for the idea size.

[banhxeo76]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

I placed the limestone countertop couple of days ago and I couldn't be happier on how it looks. Before I put the limestone countertop in place, I put some high heat insulation tape on the side of firebrick landing to minimize the heat transfer from the firebrick to the limestone countertop.

Even though I had ordered the limestone countertop to be exactly 2.5" thickness, it was short by 1/4" which is a minor problem because I want the countertop to be flush into the firebrick which is about 2.5". I solved the problem by spreading some thin set mortar with a 1/2" trowel over the concrete counter and place the limestone countertop into place and the problem solved! Need to figure a way to clean up the soot off the firebricks landing because they look very filthy being next to the limestone countertop. Is there any safety product that I can use to clean off the soot.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

WOW, what a find............jealous!

[banhxeo76]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

I got some free cobblestones from a guy who was selling Thomas the train set to me for my son. He is going to move out of the country in the near future and he was trying to get rid a lot of stuff around his house. I noticed that he has some cobblestones that look very similar to what Dino Pizza use for his outter arch finish. I asked him if he wanted to get rid of the stone and he just gave them to me for free. I gladly moved the beautiful cobblestones out of his yard because I was looking for these for a while.

He told me that these cobblestones were once use on the street of New Orleans for over hundred of years and it was removed from the street recently for new development in the warehouse district area. I am just so glad that some beautiful cobblestones fall on my lap and I am going to incorporate them as an outer arch finish just like Dino Pizza.

[banhxeo76]

Re: 40" WFO in the New Orleans

I am done with installing hardie backer board on the metal stud for over a month now. Now it is time to put some thin veneer natural limestone stone which I had ordered from central Texas. Third photo in the attachment is is the look that I am going for. These are chopped cut which required to you have a thicker mortar joint. I just love the rustic appeareance of Tuscanny. 4th photo are the corner stone and the counter top just just got in last weekend. It is time to play with mortar again.

Hope that it doesn't rain this weekend.