Faux, or imitation, stone panels are typically made out of polyurethane and despite being incredibly light to work with are strong, coated to be scratch resistant and not only look like the natural stone - but can also to feel like it.

Faux stone paneling can be installed on the outside of your home, or an out-building, to add a layer of insulation and weather protection to it; or it can be installed internally or externally for purely decorative purposes. The coloring of the faux stone panels is unlikely to degenerate as the pigments are added during the production process, meaning no secondary painting is required.

Stone Type Choices

With a wide range of faux stone panel suppliers to choose from you’ll almost certainly be able to find exactly the faux stone effect you’re looking for. Popular finishes include;

Sandstone
River stone
Coral
Slate
Limestone
Granites

All come in a variety of shades and colors. If you’ve a manufacturer of faux stone panels near to where you live - they might even produce one that exactly matches the local natural outcrops of building stones.

General Installation Procedure for Faux Stone Panels

The exact method for installing faux stone panels can vary according to the manufacturer’s instructions and the surface to which they will be attached to. You should ensure that the wall is clean and sound; and that any lose material has been cleared off the existing wall surface before starting.

• On to a clean and flat wall surface they can be fixed to it using glue and a few screws. Simply spread the recommended glue over the back of the panel and then move into position on the wall. Having a good straight and level line to fix against is essential here.
• Then secure the panel onto the wall with screws at each corner. The next panel is fitted to the first one, spread the glue over the back then slide it into place aligning the inter-locking horizontal joints as you do so, screw in into place and proceed to the next panel.
• To get a truly seamless look to the paneling, making sure you keep all the panels level and off-set the panels horizontally by half a panel. If any panels need cutting they can be sawn with a wood cutting saw, jig saw or band saw.
• If the panel tops and bottoms are tongue and grooved; make sure that the tongues are at the top and the grooves at the bottom of each panel.
• Finally caulk along the vertical and horizontal joints to ensure a perfect and weather tight finish. If you haven’t got a flat wall surface to work on - you’ll need to secure correctly sized battens to the wall that will provide screw fixing points for the panels.

Corners

If you want the faux stone paneling to cover more than one wall of a building, you need to have good corners both for the overall appearance of the paneling and to maintain the weather proof integrity of the installation.

If you are skilled enough and have the correct tools; you can, of course, miter the corners yourself from the faux stone panels as you receive them from the manufacturer. However, this can be a time consuming process and most DIY home enthusiast will prefer to use pre-fabricated corners from the maker of the faux stone panels.

Pre-fabricated corners come in two types: Overlay and Butt corners. For an overlay corner you install the faux stone panel up to near the edge of the wall and then simply overlay the panel with the pre-fabricated corner.

Overlay corners are usually the easiest to fix. With a Butt corner you fix the corner in place first and then fix, or butt, the panels up to the corner units. Actually fixing pre-fabricated corners is the same procedure as for the panels.

Wooden Surfaces

If you intend fitting faux stone paneling to an exterior wooden wall; a moisture barrier, or breather membrane, of building paper needs to be applied to the wood surface first. Then fix a series of battens for the faux stone panels to be screwed on to.

See Also: Removing Old Paneling