When exterior materials of different coefficients of expansion are rigidly attached to one another, they will eventually fail. Therefore, the attachment detail of veneer materials not only needs to allow water to drain, it must allow the materials to move independently. This is why the original "brick veneer" system had a cavity between the structural wall and a wythe of brick 4" thick and the brick was supported on a ledge and attached to the wall with flexible ties. A stone veneer wall was the same with 4" thick stone. I've designed and built many buildings with this system. Designing a tile-like cladding for a wood framed wall is difficult even in warm, dry climates. Some good systems were described in this thread 5 years ago. I'm not sure why cultured stone would perform worse than natural stone except that it absorbs more moisture, however, the joints do that anyway and in the photos above, the cultured stone doesn't appear to have cracked.

Currently I live in a solid stone and brick Texas Hill country house. The exterior is 4 different types of limestone mixed together. It looks incredible, we get nothing but compliments and no, nothing in the world would ever look better then total natural stone. However, weight was a huge issue when we were designing the house and we had to beef up the foundation considerably to support the weight of the stone. Interior wise though I have nothing but Eldorado Stone. I love this product, I love the lower weight of this product and I think this company manufactures some of the most believable "man-made" stone out there. I am currently building my 5th new home in Canada and we will not only use Eldorado Stone on the inside but also on the outside this time. I have over 5000 sq feet of stone in the new project and I wouldn't trust it to anyone else but Eldorado. One a side note though, manufactured stone should be installed by a good mason, preferably a master mason, who has worked with the product and is trained to know how to properly mix the stones throughout the laying, who follows the recommended installation instructions, and who can make the stone come alive. It is a master mason who will transform a "man-made" product into a thing of beauty. If you live in an area where real stone is a sensible price then I would chose real stone. But, for those of you who have overly high costs for natural stone, Eldorado stone is a super alternative. It also has the benefit of being a "green" option and I am receiving a bunch of LEED points for choosing a product that does less damage to the environment, is manufactured close to where I will be using it,does not benefit from forced labor practices and is not mined in inappropriate ways. It also requires far less structural concrete and rebar then real stone would require.

I'm just frustrated. You have a first floor laundry room. It's accessible to an outside wall. It should be an easy fix. If you are cutting holes in walls you can cut a hole in the laundry room wall and have a vent only a few feet long. You take the shortest distance you can access and vent there. If you have a window in that laundry room, you can even vent through your window opening. No holes in your wall. It's the same principle as putting in a window air conditioner. It's a handyman project you could do in a couple of hours if you can saw wood and have tin snips. With a vent that short, I don't see why you need to deviate from your dryer's suggested duct size and see no reason why it wouldn't work. With a vent that short, you can easily access it with a flue brush with no need of added blowers or filter boxes. Agreed, that furnace men might not be totally up on dryer air specs, but I'd trust one over a general contractor or radon remediation tech. You have forgotten one important resource, and that is the horse's mouth. Most appliance companies have specialists who can answer your questions on installations. I use them, and their advice is the final say....that's what they're paid to do. I suspected an electricians design on my ventilation in one g'house and called the manufacturer and they put me in contact with a design engineer. With that information, I told the electrician how to do it. You are your own best advocate. You need to be very careful about inputs/outputs on any ventilator fans. You don't want or need any pressure differentials on that air flow. Yes, the larger duct size will slow the velocity of the air down, and allow particulates to drop out sooner. An inappropriately sized blower (like one not meant for a dryer) could cause your dryer fan and gears to fail sooner than they should by the stress of working against a pressure or vacuum. You don't have an impossible venting situation like an inside room of a high rise. You simply have a dryer near an outside wall. Fixing your problem should be simple and direct. And you've enquired from so many sources and got such conflicting information you've made it more confusing than it needs to be. The ideal final choice of how to do it, would be the most direct conventional system, done by the source who would know most about those types of systems and not overpay for it. It's just that simple. Simple is best.

I am currently building a pool in the San Antonio area. We used Oklahoma flagstone for coping and Oklahoma chopped for the raised bond beam. I looked at using grey mortar but we ended up with Texas buff. Nothing wrong with grey, but we wanted something elese. Texas buff to my eye had more red than the yellow of standard buff. These are Lambert colors added to the grey type s cement and masonary sand. I reduced the recommended amount of colorant to about 2/3 to get the look we wanted. The pushback is that the mason will have to mix colorant consistently to achieve a uniform look. Thats harder than throwing a bag or couple of shovels in the mixer. The colorant was 5 lb boxes for about $25 dollars. I think I used 2.5 boxes. The other thing to remember is that Oklahoma varies in color from black grey to red orange. Hope that helps.