Best Chimney Exterior Solution on Natural Stone New Build - Advice Please!

HayDay18

The exterior finish of our home is white limestone building stone with granite lintels over windows and doors, and granite window cills. House is in a simple traditional/rural style. The issue is that we can’t do full blockwork with full building stone for the chimney part as we now don’t have enough room for that thickness of chimney due to the chimney coming a little too close to a valley in the roof. Brick is not an option as we didn’t go for brick detailing around windows, we have the granite instead and this work is nearly half complete on the house.
The options are;
a) Do chimney in building stone only, no block inner leaf
b) Do in block with a cladding version of the white limestone stuck on
c) Perhaps an alternative such as a grey brick which might match the overall grey tones of the exterior? Not sure how this would look, quick online search brought up Huntstown Brick in Natural from Roadstone / Light Metal Grey Brick from Vandersanden / Casa Lena from Outhaus)
It is taller than a typical chimney I would say due to being a little lower down the roof, ie. not at the very highest point of the pitch/centre of the building. As first time self-builders we are getting different advice on what is best, and being told that the cladding will weaken and fall off over time on a chimney with it being so exposed, or that the joints will become eroded on the building stone and could get washed out resulting in staining from the concrete or damage to the structural integrity of the chimney so not sure which way to do it, be grateful of any advice or alternative suggestions!

Frogeye

we had the same problem. We went with block chimney, plastered it and then got the stone we were using and cut 1.5" thick "cladding" off the outside edges, and cut corner pieces and stuck them on. work out fine so far

I was told that these might come off in time with frost etc but I'll worry about that when it happens.

The plastering should prevent water getting in even if the stone comes off...I hope.. no staining yet and its up there nearly 2 years now.

Calahonda52

What stage is the build at?
can the valley be widened, a wide valley always a good idea anyway

Gallant_JJ

Stoneer by mcMonagles is worth checking out. They essentially guillotine natural stone to 40mm thick,

HayDay18

The stonework is underway, about 75% of it done, whole roof structure is done, half slated so no going back now on the position of the chimney or the valley issue, its a learn as you go thing - and boy am I learning!

Thank you I have already sourced the cladding from Manor Stone. Got the white limestone building stone from McMonagle and not very positive experience dealing with them.

Thats good to hear Frogeye - how did you support the cladding from the bottom? I've been told I'll need steel lip support along the bottom to hold up the cladding?

Anyone think doing the chimney in just building stone is a good option?

Frogeye

We got the stone and cladding from manor as well.

I got 40 x 40 stainless steel angle pieces and gave them to the lads but im not sure if they used them or not to support the stone.

I was told a stone chimney would need a stainless steeltray ( cant recall the proper term for it) to stop water getting in and even then it would be very risky so we never really considered it.

HayDay18

We have opted to go for a block chimney with a silver granite dash finish as our lintels over windows and doors are granite so this should match in well and hopefully be minimal issues with it. We decided to partially take down the chimney and swing it back further avoiding the valley more comfortably. Thanks all for advice.