How to Install a Mantel on a Stone Fireplace | Ask This Old House

[Music] this is the fireplace we love it last two Christmases we've really realized we've missed the mantel from our other house and on that mantel we used to keep all our stocking holders with our stockings on it and we've had those four years so being nice to have a mantle okay in the 1980s contemporary house it wouldn't be unusual to have a mantel and it wouldn't be unusual not to have a mantel in this particular case if we put a mantel in it would look like it's supposed to look but as I look at this fireplace it's nice and flat which is a great start I'm looking at the thickness of the fireplace I can see that this stone is at least eight inches thick so that's going to give us the support that we're gonna need for a new mantel and I think I have one out in the truck oh that's one out all right look what we have isn't this nice I got it out of a company from Ohio beautiful red oak I had it finished to match all your finish inside but look at the key component so the reason we love a hollow mantel is because it's going to allow us for easy application why don't we get started great alright so because we don't have any way of mounting the mantel onto the stonework what I've done is I've made up a cleat and all it is is a couple two by fours nail together and it's going to help me mount the mantel so the first thing I want to do is establish the height Mantle's I usually set around 54 inches which puts me into this area right here so unfortunately I have a bump rate in my zone so we're either going to have to go a little lower or a little higher I think I'd like it a little higher just because it's such a big fireplace okay great so we'll end up somewhere in this area okay the first thing we have to do is find center of the stone work so if you wouldn't mind going over there and holding my tape you're gonna want to be flush with the outside stone okay we're looking like we have about seventy six inches which will give us a center of 38 which is right here I've already marked the center of my cleat we're gonna match it up with the center of our stone there hold it securely cuz I'm gonna put a level on it which is very important looks like I have to come up hold steady looking good right there now what we need to do is find some areas to drill our bolts what I'm looking for is a mortar joint preferably in between two stones and I'll drill right through that so I want to mark my 2x4 in between those two stones like that and now I'm gonna come over I see a stone I see a stone there's a mortar joint so I'd like to go right and be 20 dollars so now I'm looking for again two stones here and here there's my mortar joint so I'm gonna try to do drive into that cavity all right so what I've done is I prepped our cleat for the stone I've drilled our holes in the back of the cleat I hugged out just so it can take some of the depth of the stone that's jumping out into our profile and we're going to attach it with a wedge anchor you see when I torque down the bolt this anchor is going to expand that's going to lock us into the stone so the mantle doesn't tip out or fall oh good all right so let's put this up all right put the drill right into the pilot hole start the drill off slow but go in you'll know when you hit the stone try to pull the trigger going push all right nicely done very cool all right now come in and give me some taps on that bolt okay easy taps till you get through that wood okay now you go in first okay and all of this is gonna slip right in walk it in so now all we have to do is attach the mantle to the cleat and we're gonna do that using brass screws and brass grommets on our pre-finish mantle all right Margaret you needed a place to hang the stockings what do you think oh it looks great nice it's it's a little too early for Christmas but is it ever no it's never too early and it really they look great and when we do have Christmas we'll have family over we can have all our stockings oh I love it I love it yeah and so I'm so glad you came to Chicago thank you for having me out I had a ball today nice job mark thank you just a couple of questions for you why did you deliberately drill through the mortar and not the stone I would think the stone would be more solid than the mortar sure so I assess every situation as soon as I walk in the first thing I noticed about that job was the stone although it was nice and thick eight to ten inches which I like I was very brittle so that's why I made the decision to go in between the stones and hit the joints had it been beefy stone or brick or something like that could you have gone right into it and would you have gone into it I definitely would have New England has great stone for application so something around here we would have we definitely would have drilled right into gotcha and in that case you had a hollow back but sometimes people got an old piece of wood antique piece of wood beam or something it's solid right in that case what do you recommend in that case I always love a post my post can be rerun a post can be a lead-pipe before we touch the pipe what we're gonna want to do is throw epoxy into that hole that's really my big bit right there yep fill with epoxy right so over drill fill with epoxy take your post yeah put your post in it'll get nice and snug right away gotcha I add epoxy to this end yeah and then just apply my mantle oh in epoxy hold it for a second since that's right up all right and you brought us a nice little demonstration so in this case we're talking post down the length of whatever solid piece of wood yep the drilling in the back and then you would just sort of carefully epoxy push that in and you're sort of in the same situation exactly very nice all right good great information and I'll say what looks like you made her day oh we got a ball over there she was great nice job all right thanks coming thanks for watching this whole house has gotten a video for just about every home improvement project so be 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Channel: This Old House

Views: 44,531

Rating: 4.87251 out of 5

Keywords: This Old House, masonry, fireplaces, mantel, Mark McCullough, 7-10 minutes, DIY, Construction, Home Improvement, Ask This Old House, Building, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, Stone Fireplace, diy ideas, contemporary fireplace, wood mantel, Ask This Old House mason, mason Mark McCullough, fireplace mantel decor, fireplace mantel build, fireplace mantel makeover, fireplace mantel diy, fireplace mantel ideas, fireplace mantel installation

Id: _dyL5WH5gEI

Length: 7min 22sec (442 seconds)

Published: Mon May 11 2020