Installation of Stone & Brick

Step 1   Prepare base wall

(1) Make sure wall strength meets the requirement of installation.

(2) Low water-absorbing surface, such as wood or plastic, require lath to allow proper bonding of the mortar.  Masonry surface, such as brick or concrete, must be free of any dirt, paints, coatings or oils.

(3) Apply scratch coat of mortar over the lath or on the smooth surface. Rough texture will improve the bond between the scratch coat and the stones.

(4) Moisten the surface with water one day before installation, moisten again just before installation. Dry wall will absorb water in the mortar, which will affect the strength and solidification of the mortar and make the stone easy to drop off from the walls.

Step 2   Prepare stones

(1)  If stone shape is regular, you can directly take them out from a box in order and apply onto the wall.

(2)  If stone shape is irregular, we suggest you take out the stones from different boxes at random, put the stones on the floor and adjust the position of each stone to ensure the whole effect of the stones. It’d be better to match small stone with big stone, match rough one with flat one, put thin piece besides thick piece. Also, please pay attention to the color consistency of the whole wall.

(3)  You can cut the stone into small pieces when it’s necessary. That is: take out a stone and knock it on the point which is flatter and thinner. The broken pieces can fill the gap between big stones.

Step 3   Mix adhesive material

(1)  ICOT adhesive product TC-22 or TC-32 is recommended. It’s qualified and easy to use by just mixing  25 kg of TC-22 (or TC-32) with 6.0~ 7.0kg of water before applying stones.

(2)  If you prefer to use common mortar, the ratio between cement, sand and water should be 1: 1: 0.39. Cement should be Portland cement or common silicate cement; Sand should be clean and smaller than 2mm stimulated by the international standards; Water should be clean.

Step 4   Install stone & brick
(1)  Corners should be installed before flats. Flats should be installed from edge to center, from bottom to top.

(2)  Apply mortar onto the wall evenly. Working area is limited around 0.5 sqm – 1sqm for one time to prevent mortar from hardening before completing installation. The mortar should be 2mm-3mm thick.

(3)  Apply a thin layer of mortar at the stone back with thicker center and thinner edges.

(4)  Press the stone against the wall till the mortar squeezes out from all sides of the stone. Total mortar thickness is about 4mm-6mm when installation completes.

(5)  Remove excess mortar from the stone face before it hardens.

Step 5   Grout the joint
(1)  The joint of bricks is suggested to be 8mm-10mm wide; joint of irregular stones is suggested to be less than 20mm wide.
(2)  ICOT Rough Joint Grout is recommended. Please refer to Installation of Rough Joint Grout for details of joint   

grouting.