Greetings from Knots-
I have a brick enclosure around a cook top. over the years, the brick has become very dirty and unsanitary for a food preparation area, so I’d like to install tile over the brick.
My question for you pros out there is what kind of tile prep should I do? I was thinking about using type s mortar and float it over the brick to get a flat surface. The brick is very porous and I think the mortar should hold very well, but I sure could use some validation.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Regards, Sean
Edited 7/14/2008 3:43 pm ET by Sean2112
Replies
Assuming that the dirt is the result of cooking oil splatter, I'd start with commercial grade liquid degreaser and a stiff bristle brush or a wire brush.
HD has a pretty good supply of those products or you could look for a janitorial supply company in the yellow pages.
I'd use a brush with a threaded hole in it to allow for a broom stick, so you can lean into it.
Secondary clean up with liquid detergent like Simple Green and water. It may take several applications of each product to get the bricks clean enough to make for a good bond with thin set mortar.
I wonder if there is enough tooth in the rough texture for the mortar to hold securely despite the grease?
To the OP: once the grease is cleaned off the brick, I would just use a latex modified thinset troweled right on the brick, and set the tile while it's still wet. But you could do a skim coat to fill the mortar joints and even it out a bit first."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I wonder if there is enough tooth in the rough texture for the mortar to hold securely despite the grease?
It's a pretty simple job to clean the bricks, if he uses a good degreasing product and puts his back into scrubbing it. I wouldn't bet on anything holding otherwise.
Hey, if the brick cleans up nice he might just forget about the tile job.
But if he takes out the bricks, he gets a bit more than 8" additional width (and 4" depth) for his work area. For cooking tools, spices, etc.
Then he does not have a wet sloppy mess to clean up. Just a dry dusty one.