We Have A Brick Fireplace Unpainted.can I Adhere Real Stone To It Without Using Chicken Wire And What Do I Use To Adhere It To The Brick?

 

It's not chicken wire, but lath made specifically for rock work. And, yes, it would be best for you to attach the lath to the existing work to give your thinset something to stick to. Otherwise the weight of all the rock may tend to bulge at the middle and possibly fail.

 

Thinset sticks amazingly well to clean brick without the use of lath or a scratch coat. I don't know how heavy your real stone is but I've had no problems applying stone veneer to clean brick with no lath or scratch coat. As well, I've successfully attached real flagstone to the fireplace hearth with nothing more than latex modified thin set. If you're applying real stone to the face of the fireplace and it's substantially heavy, you may have problems with the stone sliding downwards so use a thin set that is on the drier side and start from the bottom working upwards or be prepared to support your stones with something if starting at the top working down. I also used a notched trowel ...when you trowel your thin set, if the ridges start to sag, then your thin set is too wet.

Good luck!
Steve

 

Thank you for your post.What thickness should the thinset be applied at?What do you mean by sagging ridges(thinset too wet)?

 

I just eyeballed the thickness as I laid it on since troweling it gave me the proper thickness. You basically want enough to cover the brick and the veneer. I buttered the brick and the backside of the veneer, then troweled both in opposing directions (so vertically troweled the brick and horizontally troweled the veneer and vice versa).

When you run your notched trowel across the thin-set laid on the brick and stone at a, say 45 degree angle, the notches create ridges in the thin-set while removing the excess. When you do this to the face of the fireplace (i.e. the bricks that are stacked vertically), the ridges that are created by the notches in the trowel should not sag downwards. I had this happen a few times and if the thin-set sags, the stones will sag, too. If you're working from the bottom up, you may not have this problem since the stones will be supported by what's underneath them. This will not be a problem on the hearth or flat brick surfaces as nothing will cause the thin-set to sag, obviously. Does this make any sense?