nailing to brick

[Ted Fairhurst]

I am looking for advice on how to attach wire mesh (metal lathing) to my clay brick wall. I plan to parge the wall, and I am told that the wire mesh will help prevent the parging from cracking.

One store clerk told me to nail on the mesh, using one-inch concrete nails. Do I drive these nails into the brick itself or into the mortar joints.

I'm also wondering how necessary it is to use the wire mesh. Other people have told me that the parging (stucco) will adere quite well if I use a bonding agent.

For the parging itself, I plan to use Type S masonry cement, with some airfloated clay as a plasticizer.

Thanks,

Ted Fairhurst Toronto

[raven]

Always fix thing to the mortar joints. You should avoid breaking into individual masonry units whenever practicable.

It will work OK without, but if you get cracking, especially with some serious freeze-thaw cycles, You could run into some large scale repairs. The steel will help hold the material on despite a few cracks.

Were I in your shoes, I think I'd skip the wire and risk bigger repairs later (or rather try to be very vigilant about repairs while they're still small).

The formula's I've seen use a bit of extra Lime for that, but it sounds OK to me.

John