How to Add a Brick Front to a House

Cover all non-concrete, brick, stone, stucco or otherwise concrete-bondable surfaces with felt paper and wire mesh. For example, plywood needs to be covered with paper and mesh, while a concrete slab or mason block wall can have the brick installed directly on top of it.

Cut the felt paper to fit with a utility knife and overlap the sections by at least two inches. Tack the paper into place with the hammer tacker. Use the tin snips to cut pieces of wire lath to fit the same installation surface, overlapping accordingly and tacking those into place.

Install the brick. Mix up a batch of thinset mortar with the drill and paddle until you achieve a creamy consistency according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Use the trowel to apply mortar to the wire mesh so that it covers all of the voids.

Apply more mud to the back of a piece of brick and push it into place. Start at the bottom of the wall and install the bottom row first so that you can stack the other rows on top of that. Stagger the installation so that every other row is staggered from the one below.

Fill the voids between the bricks with mud using the trowel. Wait until it begins to set up then come back through with the jointer tool to smooth down the joints to a uniform level. Set the tip of the tool in the joint and pull it along while applying pressure to tool the joints.