Updating the Fireplace

Living in sunny southern California, our family has very little need for our fireplace.  We only use it a few times a year, mostly for ceremony's sake, such as Christmas parties.  For the other 360 days of the year it is not used, it's a cosmetic addition to the house.  Until now, that cosmetic addition was dated and had an old feel look to it with it's 1970's original red brick appeal.

After toying with the idea of updating it so it looked nicer and "more modern."  I finally committed a weekend to it.  My wife and I went and picked out some tile.  We settled on a ceramic tile that had a marble looking finish to it.

After measuring the surface are and calculating how many tiles I would need, I bought them, some tile spacers and some white tile grout to fill the gaps between the tiles.

Fortunately, I had some left over mortar mix from an older project collecting dust in the garage and it ended up being the perfect amount to get this project done.  

The glass door on the fireplace was an add on and is held by a few thumb screws, so it comes off very easy.  Once I stored it in the garage I could begin my work.

The first order of business was to clean the bricks and mortar.  They are a porous surface and had collected years of ash, soot and other fire byproducts.  Using the shop vac, I sucked up all the dust and chips on the surface.  Then I took some Clorox spray with bleach and scrubbed the surface down with a stiff bristle brush and vacuumed up the dirty cleaning solution.

Now it's nice and clean!

Now that the surface is clean, I can begin laying the tile down.  To do that, I need to mix the mortar.  I had been storing the mortar mix in a bucket so I just added water to it.  While adding the water (slowly), i mixed it up using a mixing attachment that plugs into my power drill.  Continue mixing and adding water until the mortar has a pudding like consistency.

After mixing it up, I took the bucket o' mortar, gloves, level and notched trowel to the fireplace to start the tile laying.

 I took my level and placed it underneath the mantel to make sure it was level.  I hate looking at home featured that are at an angle.  I feel like they bring the value of the home down and make me dizzy trying to maintain balance.  Fortunately, whoever put this mantel on (me) was fastidious in making sure it was level.

After my OCD was satisfied, I took the notched trowel, scooped up a bunch of the mortar and slapped it onto the back of one of the tiles.  I spread the mortar evenly until the back was (mostly) covered.  Then I took the notched side of the trowel, held it at a 45 degree angle to the tile and drug it across the tile so there were little rectangular runs or "notches" in the mortar.

I placed the tile on the fireplace.  I thought I would start on the upper section of the vertical running bricks and work my way down, but I found when I let the tile go, it would slip downward.  Even after holding it in place for fifteen minutes, it still fell down ( I also checked it against the level to satisfy my OCD).

After struggling with the "upper" tile for far to long, I changed my plan of attack and started on the bottom so the tile was resting on the brick and had nowhere to slide. 

Turns out this was much easier, as I was able to use the tile spacers to support the next up tile as I mortared it to the bricks.

Once I got to the top, right under the mantel, the distance was smaller than the width of the tile, so I had to measure it at cut it to size.  Fortunately, I bought a tile cutter when I renovated the kitchen.

 Once I cut and mortared all the tile, the fireplace looked like this:

Initially when I was cutting the tile, I was being super precise and cutting it to perfect size, then I realized since a portion of it was going to be covered by the glass insert, I made fewer cuts to save time and the tile cutting blade.

Now to tackle the sides.  Almost all tile for sale has a matching "edging" tile that has one side of it's length rounded over for a more elegant finish.  Lather these up with mortar and put into place with tile spacers as you would the "regular" tiles.   Cut tiles as appropriate.

With the brick completely covered with tile now, it's time for a little bit of clean up.  Clumps of mortar got EVERYWHERE.  I pick up the larger and harder clumps by hand and disposed of them.  Then I took a wet rag and wiped the whole thing down

Now, you're supposed to wait 24 hours for the mortar to dry before applying the tile grout, but I am impatient, so I waited 24 minutes (enough time to go to the taco shop and get me some carne asada fries).

After stuffing my face with that artery clogging goodness, I grabbed my grout float and sponge.  Since I'm lazy and this project was small, I figured I could get a way with a small container of pre-mixed tile grout (otherwise I'd have to buy a big bag with lots of excess material and have to mix it).

Just like the mortar mix, i scoped it out with the float and stuffed/spread it into the cracks between the tiles (yanking out the tile spaces and filling in those gaps too).

After filling in the gaps for about two to three square feet, the grout that stuck to the surface of the tile began to dry and I wanted to remove it while it was still wet since it was easier to clean.  So I paused the grout spreading and mopped up the tile surfaces with my wet sponge (wringing it out in a bucket of water occasionally).

Now it's nice and clean

After putting the glass insert back in I can kick back and enjoy my new, modern fireplace.