Can I use left-over high temp mortar for applying veneer?

Construction Materials Needed to Build a BrickWood
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I am sure this has been asked before, but I am now ready to add a brick or veneer finish to my oven that I completed almost 2 years ago (Covid project). Can I just use the high temp mortar that I used for the rest of the oven, or do you reccomend a product that I can get from Lowes/HomeDepot?

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Hi, Welcome to the forum.

I pondered the same questions when I built my oven so I did a little digging into mortar types. Here is what I found: Mortar Investigation

I used type S mortar for my veneer but mixed my own using left over Portland cement and hydrated lime. No fire clay and I used the general purpose sand (not the play sand or silica sand) avaialble at any lowes, home depot, etc… If you don’t want to mix your own just buy the Type S mortar.

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Thanks Ken. Any suggestions on the best place to shop for brick veneer? I haven’t looked around a lot yet, but I would expect that box stores would not have a lot of original types/looks.

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I’d stay away from the box stores and look for a local family owned building supply store. I found one about 30 minuets from me and saved 50% compared to the box stores. I used Prestige Stone Products manufactured veneer and was happy with the results. There are many other suppliers who do manufactured or real stone. Real stone is expensive though.

Where are you located? Someone in the forum might be able to point you to some place close.

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I am in the Salt Lake City area. I’ll look around. I like to support the local guys as much as I can, although HD and Lowes seem to have my CC on file.

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Hi Jon, and good to see you here!

In addition to Ken’s advice (including the link to his excellent post about the various types of mortar), I’d refer you to @BrickWood’s general reference on the topic. Depending on the product you end up using, you may want to know about thin-set and polymer resin mortars.

If you end up choosing a porous veneer, you’ll want to waterproof it.

And I’m sure you already know this, but you’ll need to give your oven a good scrubbing to remove soot and soil before you apply adhesives and veneer over the stucco. Search the forum to find more detail about that.

Good luck, and please post photos when you’re done!

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