I'm in the process of renovating our living room which, until recently, contained a monster of a 1970s brick fireplace. We removed the hearth and facebrick and now are planning on making a smaller mantle surround and tiling the space between and the hearth on the floor.I'm currently planning on attaching durock cement board to the brick so I can plumb it up and make sure the tiling surface is flat for my rookie tiling.A few questions: *Is screwing in the cement board to the brick with masonry screws sufficient, or should i be filling the space in between with mortar as well?http://ift.tt/2fmXmGv http://ift.tt/2fmiCw6 *What kind of mortar? Another thought was to build out the face a few inches to give some more definition to the fireplace -- can i use the cement board perpendicular to the face to make up the difference between the face and the firebox? http://ift.tt/2fnlsk8 fireplace has been converted to gas, but i don't want anything to get too hot that isn't supposed to. there will be nothing combustible with 12in on the face of the box and the mantle will be within code for distance and amount sticking out.Any other advice is welcome! Thanks!album of before and during pics and cad ideas http://ift.tt/2xzxXQC via /r/DIY http://ift.tt/2xXEpSs
