Hi,
First off, I'm glad I found this site, great info here! I've done a search and read a few threads but wasn't able to find a definitive answer to my question, here goes...
I've got a 37 year old house in Toronto with some brick veneer in pretty sad shape. We bought this house about 6 months ago and basically gutted the interior, I'm now turning my attention to the exterior before the snow flies. Below the front porch (concrete slab) we have and area that the PO decided to parge and fill in the drip channel while he was at it. Needless to say, that didn't last long and the parging had begun to flake and crack so I removed it all and was faced with the mess in the first two pictures below.
Now I've already decided to apply granite stone to the area to match the retaining wall, again, see the attachment.
My question is, how can I prepare this surface for the stone? More specifically, do I have to fill/level/smooth this area before I apply my wire mesh and scratch coat? Can I use a Type S cement? Or is there something better out there? How to allow the wall to 'breathe' so that I can avoid this issue in the future?
Thanks in advance.
First off, I'm glad I found this site, great info here! I've done a search and read a few threads but wasn't able to find a definitive answer to my question, here goes...
I've got a 37 year old house in Toronto with some brick veneer in pretty sad shape. We bought this house about 6 months ago and basically gutted the interior, I'm now turning my attention to the exterior before the snow flies. Below the front porch (concrete slab) we have and area that the PO decided to parge and fill in the drip channel while he was at it. Needless to say, that didn't last long and the parging had begun to flake and crack so I removed it all and was faced with the mess in the first two pictures below.
My question is, how can I prepare this surface for the stone? More specifically, do I have to fill/level/smooth this area before I apply my wire mesh and scratch coat? Can I use a Type S cement? Or is there something better out there? How to allow the wall to 'breathe' so that I can avoid this issue in the future?
Thanks in advance.