Fireplace refacing?

[Woody]

I'm looking for ideas to update our 80s brick fireplace. We are looking at stone refacing and I wanted to see if any of you had any experience with this. Anything to watch out for? Is it a good DIY project? Etc?
THANKS

[crokett]

I refaced mine. I wanted stone but my wife wanted a different look. I used a masonry coating product. Enough scratch coats to cover the mortar joints, then a final tinted skim coat to give it a textured look.

I looked into stone when I did mine. If you want to use stone, you still need to build a mortar scratch coat enough to fill in the existing mortar joints. Look into a stone veneer. Much lighter, easier to handle and I think you can put the pieces on with a mastic-type material instead of mortar.

[Knottscott]

Our fireplace was a very plain brown brick structure with a really rough and basic pine mantel. We resurfaced the hearth and the opening around the fireplace with 12" ceramic tiles, added some bookshelves and rebuilt the mantel. The only snags I recall were some difficulty supporting the upside down tiles on the inside of the fireplace opening while the mastik dried, and the fact that the wall wasn't flat.

[leehljp]

Thanks Scott for the pict. I too will be doing something similar in about 3 to 4 years when retirement comes.

[Woody]

Thanks for the repsonses so for. I wanted to give this thread a bump.

[OpaDC]

Just a thought! Our house has a dark brick fireplace from ceiling to floor with hearth about 12" off floor. Years ago we went through a "beach" phase and had seafoam green carpet, beige and pastel furniture, etc. I almost plastered over the fireplace to paint it or something. What stopped me was the thought that this would be permanent. Came up with the idea of building a surround with plywood or backer board that I could paint, tile, whatever while doing little damage to the brick; maybe some holes in grout line for support or something like that. Procrastinator that I am though I never got around to it.
We now have a Tuscan look to the room now. So if I had actually gone through with the project I would now have 3 options, paint, a stucco look, OR remove the surround and go back to the brick. As it turns out the brick looks good with the dark furniture, antiques and faux stucco walls.
My point is, doing any thing directly to the brick is pretty permanent and a surround offers some options.

[JeffG78]

I redid mine last fall. It was a 50's stone fireplace that needed an update. I thought about tearing the stone off, but went with a new mantel instead. Here is the link. http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=33014

It really brought new life to the room. By adding more wood and reducing the amount of stone showing, it looks much better. Depending on the room decor, you might consider painting the brick and adding a nice mantel.

[OpaDC]

I redid mine last fall. It was a 50's stone fireplace that needed an update. I thought about tearing the stone off, but went with a new mantel instead. Here is the link. http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=33014

It really brought new life to the room. By adding more wood and reducing the amount of stone showing, it looks much better. Depending on the room decor, you might consider painting the brick and adding a nice mantel.

Jeff, you're one of those reasons I don't let my wife look over my shoulder while I browse the forums. She has enough ideas of her own without seeing what nice stuff others come up with!

[Woody]

I redid mine last fall. It was a 50's stone fireplace that needed an update. I thought about tearing the stone off, but went with a new mantel instead. Here is the link. http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=33014

It really brought new life to the room. By adding more wood and reducing the amount of stone showing, it looks much better. Depending on the room decor, you might consider painting the brick and adding a nice mantel.

I like it. This the look we have been considering. Stone or tile with a wood surround. Good job.

[Woody]

Update on Fireplace Refacing

Alright, here is a before and where we are right now. I'll post a new picture once we are done.

[JeffG78]

Looks great Woody! Nice job.

[just started]

If it is a working fireplace, wood or gas burning, be sure to get and follow your local building codes for material used and distance from the firebox, even if you don't intend to have a fire in the fireplace. If you should have the misfortune to have a house fire and the insurance company finds out that the fireplace didn't meet code they will use that to deny your claim, even if that wasn't the cause. You can take them to court and win, but it will cost a lot and take a few years.

[atgcpaul]

Alright, here is a before and where we are right now. I'll post a new picture once we are done.

That looks very nice, Mike. It looks you went by the book on this one and
you have all the right clearances, etc., to meet code. I especially like the
smaller bricks you used to cover the old brick. What is that? Small brick tiles
or something else?


Paul

[Woody]

That looks very nice, Mike. It looks you went by the book on this one and
you have all the right clearances, etc., to meet code. I especially like the
smaller bricks you used to cover the old brick. What is that? Small brick tiles
or something else?


Paul

Thanks. They are just small tiles.
I attached 1/4" cement backer board to the front of the fireplace and to the top of the hearth. This really helped level off the brick for the tile and gave me a good solid base. A neighbor of mine put the tile straight to the brick and it is unlevel - grout cracking, etc. The wood surround is a kit from Lowes. I am going to add some more molding and possibly a raised panel to the hearth to dress it up a little more.

[Woody]

Here is the fireplace with the final trim pieces in. I made some panels with my Holbren panel door bit set I purchased several years ago when they were on special. It was the first time I used it. I ended up buying a Bosch Router table because the BT3100 router table didn't have the clearance for the panel bit. I learned a lot and am now looking at making some paneled doors for a bathroom vanity for an upcoming project.
I wanted to mount my Hitachi M12V on this router table but the bit wouldn't clear the plunge base on it and the holes didn't match the table plate without an adapter which I would have to mail order. So I put my PC 690 on it and it worked like a champ. I have gotten more use out of my PC 690 than the Hitachi for several reasons but they do compliment each other as a pair. Bottom line is I really like having two routers and had felt guilty about purchasing the PC 690 for doing some hand held hinge mortising for another project years ago. It has paid off in the big picture having the pair. There are also a lot more compainies than make accessories for the PC690.

The panels are a very nice touch. LOML really likes it and all we have to do is paint now. We had looked at several options for this fireplace including stone veneer which would have cost and bundle and really didn't fit the style of our house. We did this on the cheap and I got some extra tools out of it. Now to find some more projects to use the new dedicated router table with. Thanks to everyone who gave input on this project. It has been very rewarding to work through the details.