Refacing a Brick Fireplace: Tile, Stone or Veneer

What refacing means

Refacing covers the visible face of the fireplace, the surround and often the hearth, with a new material while the masonry fireplace and chimney stay as they are. Common choices are porcelain or ceramic tile, natural stone slabs, thin brick, and manufactured or natural stone veneer. In brownstones and older apartments, refacing sometimes means removing a later layer to get back to an original marble or cast-iron surround.

The firebox, smoke chamber and flue are not part of a refacing job. If the fireplace will be used, those have to be working before the new face goes on, because getting at them afterward can mean cutting into the new finish.

Can the brick take it?

Tile and stone are only as stable as the surface behind them. Brick that is solid, dry and free of paint, sealer and heavy soot bonds well. Brick that sheds sand when rubbed, has open or crumbling joints, or shows damp patches and white salts will let the new face loosen. Cracks that cross several bricks suggest movement in the fireplace or chimney, and tile laid over a moving surface cracks along the same line.

Old fireplace faces are rarely flat. Rough, tumbled or deeply recessed joints need a skim coat of mortar to create a flat base for tile. Painted brick usually needs the paint mechanically removed or a bonding method the tile setting product's maker approves for that surface.

Materials compared

Every option can work. The differences are weight, heat tolerance near the opening, and how forgiving the material is over uneven brick.

Whatever the material, the setting mortar and grout matter as much as the face. Use cement-based products rated for the temperatures near a fireplace, not the organic mastic sold for kitchen backsplashes, which softens with heat. Leave movement joints where the new face meets the hearth and the side walls, since brick and tile expand at different rates as the fireplace heats and cools. Without them, the first cracks usually appear at the corners of the opening.

Clearances around the opening

Heat rolls out of the top of a fireplace opening and radiates from the sides. The finish directly around the opening needs to be noncombustible: tile, stone, brick or a cement-based backer, set in mortar rather than with organic adhesive. Wood trim, a wood mantel shelf and wood paneling count as combustible even when painted, and they have to stay a set distance from the opening. For a masonry fireplace that distance comes from the building code your town enforces; the deeper a mantel projects, the higher it must sit.

For a factory-built fireplace or an insert, the manufacturer's installation manual sets the clearances, and it often shows a diagram for mantels and surround materials. Some units have strict rules about covering the face around the opening at all. Find the model label before ordering materials.

The hearth in front

A wood-burning fireplace needs a noncombustible hearth extension in front of and beside the opening to catch embers and keep heat off the floor framing. Raising, extending or retiling the hearth is part of most refacing jobs. Tile over a wood subfloor is not a hearth; the extension needs proper noncombustible construction and the size your local code requires for the opening.

In older homes a cracked hearth slab is common, often because the floor framing below has moved or the original support has sagged. New tile over a cracked hearth will crack again in the same place. The hearth support needs to be checked first.

Do not bury the working parts

Refacing jobs sometimes cover things that must stay reachable. The damper handle, chain or lever has to stay accessible. A cleanout door on the face of the chimney, in the basement or on an exterior wall, needs to stay operable. Gas inserts have controls, access panels and a gas shutoff that the manual requires to be reachable, and their trim panels need room to come off for service.

If glass doors are mounted to the old brick face, plan how they will attach to the new one. Doors fixed to a thin veneer can work loose, and gaps around the frame let room air leak up the flue.

• Damper handle or chain
• Ash dump in the firebox floor
• Cleanout door below
• Gas shutoff and insert access panel
• Glass door mounting points

Weight and support

Full-thickness natural stone and large slabs are heavy. On a masonry fireplace that rests on its own foundation, the face can usually carry a reasonable added load, but stone set above the opening needs proper anchoring or a supporting ledge, not adhesive alone. On a factory-built fireplace framed into a wood wall, the wall framing has to carry the weight, which limits how heavy a surround can be.

Upper-floor fireplaces in rowhouses and brownstones often sit on the masonry stack in the party wall, which helps, but the floor around the hearth is wood framing. Ask about weight before choosing a stone that will cover the whole breast.

Before work starts

Use the refacing as a reason to have the fireplace and chimney inspected. If smoke has stained the old face, find out why before covering the evidence. If the firebox has open joints, the repair is easiest while the surround is open. If you plan to switch to gas or add an insert, decide that now, because the insert's trim size and the gas line route affect the new face.

Permits for interior refacing vary by town; replacing a hearth or changing the fireplace itself may need one where cosmetic tile does not. Check with your local building department.