Hey guys, Sorry if this is the wrong section (maybe it should be in interior walls or something) but it had to do with the hearth of a fireplace and support so I figured I'd throw it in here. I have a masonry fireplace (other thread related) that is anything but symmetrical, that I need to frame so I can add a stacked stone veneer to the front (from floor to ceiling). I'll add pics below. I'm trying to figure out exactly where to place the frame supports, and what type of studs to use to hold up 600ish pounds of stone, and still have it all flush with the front of the fireplace. I'd like to use metal studs for obvious reasons and place them on each side of the fireplace so that I can put sheets of Durock flush with the front of the fireplace like a sheath (and then veneer the stone onto that). My issue is this: the edges of the concrete fireplace hearth meet the subfloor with a gap, and I'm either going to have to anchor metal studs to the concrete pad or the subfloor adjacent to it. I'd rather do the former for aesthetics. I'm wondering a couple things... A: If I anchor the studs to the concrete hearth pad, would the weight of the stacked stone damage it once it's built? There's a basement below. And what would I use to correctly anchor a metal stud to a concrete slab? B: Are metal studs even capable of holding that much weight? They seem flimsy as hell and I have no experience working with them. Ideally I'd like to build an H shaped frame on the front face with a metal stud horizontal across (where the brick recesses a little at around 5' high.. you can see a roll of tape sitting on it), and two verticle metal studs along side the front corners of the brick face. Then frame it all in with Durock and have a nice flat surface to scratch coat for the stone (no gap between brick front and Durock). Also that way there would be nothing at all combustible in the actual "box" the fireplace and chimney resides in. This is provided that the metal studs can support a stone veneer wall of course.. and that I can anchor metal studs to the concrete poured under the fireplace without issue. I'd like to have the sides of the stone veneer flush with the edges of the concrete pad (see pics). Some of the pad is covered with that black tile but you can still see the edge in the pics. Feel free to ask any questions if this explanation has been as confusing as it sounds while I'm typing it lol... Thanks guys. edit: I should mention that it's on an exterior wall with a ash pit and cinder block wall below the firebox itself, but the concrete pad sticks out about 16-20" from that.

My fireplace has a control knob with settings for "off", "ign", "low" and "hi" in that order. The knob is now set to "off". There is also a separate push button which I assume sends a spark. Is the "ign" setting the same as the "pilot" setting on most other systems? Do I turn the knob to "ign", then depress that knob and keep it depressed while I press the other button which sends the spark? Thanks!