To put up the stone veneer over our brick wall, its recommended to put a scratch coat up first. So after putting up the metal lathe, I’ve covered it all in a mixture of 1 part Type N Masonry Cement to 1 part All-purpose Sand. Mixing up the cement and applying it was pretty tiring so I did it in two separate coats (one of which is still wet in the picture). I was happy to see that it dried well and is securely fastened to the wall with no voids. I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get enough mortar through the lathe to fill the gabs in the brick.
I also learned that I apparently hung the metal lathe in the wrong direction, its supposed to be put up horizontally, and in a particular direction so that it holds the mortar better. Fortunately this didn’t seem to cause any problems. To help the mortar adhere to the scratch coat you are supposed to ‘comb’ (or scratch i suppose) the scratch coat, to allow the mortar to adhere better. However since I didn’t have cement comb, I just put some grooves in it with the tip of my trowel.
Hi there, wow impressive stuff with the little I’ve seen so far. Congratulations! We are about to embark on a small Eldorado fireplace facing starting from drywall. How did you plan for your mantel shelf? Did you attach it after the scratch coat? How did you attach it? We actually haven’t decided whether we are going all the way up to the ceiling as the ceiling is low (7ft). We might just end it at the mantel shelf. As well, in your research did you find anything out about using thinset instead of mortar? This is what the tilesetter we’re hiring wants to do…Thanks ahead for your advice 🙂
The 2×4 that is in the picture is just a stand in for the mantle shelf that hasn’t been built yet. However I will attach the mantle shelf in the same way, that is to use 3″ masonry screws that go through the scratch coat and into the brick behind it. The screws are rated for something like 200lbs a piece so a few of them should be plenty for the mantle shelf.
The mortar that I used has thinset as a component. This is whats recommended by the manufacture, and since its cheaper too, it seems silly to use something else. I would make sure your contractor follows the Eldorado installation instructions, as setting the stone is quite a bit different from setting tile. The isntructions can be downloaded at http://www.eldoradostone.com/shared-downloads/Eldorado-Stone-Installation-Procedures.pdf