I just bought a home and want to resurface the current brick fireplace. The bricks are in great shape and I am not sure if they have been treated, but do not appear to be. I want to use drystack like a ledgestone. My question is should I use surface bonding cement or cement board between the brick and new stone?
Hello and thank you for joining our How to Community.
First, are these real bricks or this is a brick veneer you are going over? I'm going to assume these are real solid bricks...
Typically with installations over a clean and sound masonry all its required it’s a good cleaning, priming and possibly scratching of the surface.
Main concern for the most manufacturers is failure of the mortar to bond to the existing substrate. This said if the substrate (brick) is painted, sealed, dirty or unsound than it would require a cement board, lath or scratch coat for the stone to have something to bond to properly.
I would recommend cleaning the surface best of your ability and applying a bonding agent over the entire area. Once the primer is applied, I would go ahead and fill the deep mortar joints and spots, if any; otherwise I would proceed with installation.
Just FYR I’ve attached installation instruction from one of our vendors, to get re directed to that page click HERE or on the image bellow.
Hope this helps.
George
It is real brick! The brock is in fantastic shape and I dont believe it to be sealed ( just bought the house so I cant be sure) I was thikning I would use this.. How do you feel about that?
Hello again :)
Quikwall is a great product but in your case here, it is really not necessary. It is more intended for exterior dry stack applications.
Like advised in my previous post use surface bonding primer to prime the brick and "glue" your new brick veneer directly on top of the old stuff. To fill deep joints or spots you can use same product you would use to "glue" new veneer, which is type S Mason Mix.
Can you post a picture of the fireplace, front and side view, I can probably tell from the pictures if it’s sealed or not.
Hope this helps.
George