Furring Out Brick

Mike Finley

I'm going to need to attach a variety of wood furring to an interior brick fireplace measuring roughly 12'x20' so drywall can be attached. Usually I use Tapcons for concrete or brick. There is going to be a lot of attachment points so I'm wondering if there is something better I might be looking at. The one down side to the tap cons is they sit proud of the furring which will be an issue when attaching drywall. For the larger and wider furring it won't be such a problem, but some places are going to require 3/4" wide furring so I won't be able to just over drive them to counter sink them since that would split the furring strips. I suppose I can just run a counter sink bit on those furring strips if I have to.

Blackhawk

id either counter sink or try the bugle tapcon on the small pieces.. or furring channel wich i dont like in houses ..

IHI

Instead of using the typical screw head tapcons, can you switch it up on these narrow furring strips and counter sink the hex head type? maybe a 3/8" counter sunk hole for them if socket will fit?

I've tried some other types of concrete "screws" and just have not found any that having hte gripping power or able to withstand the "tq" on the screw itself without snapping off.

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A+Carpenter

DING DING DING that was a smart answer.

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Nick H

I would usually fix battens (firrings) using screws and plastic plugs. I've been using some screws recently that have self countersinking heads and I've found that if i drive them with an impact driver they very rarely split the timber, the driver "punches" them in clean. The hole that is left is clean enough to glue a dowel plug into to hide the heads.

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Gordo

How thick is the furring material? If it is 1/4 inch then use a smaller "bugle" tapcon in a counter sunk hole. Take care not to counter to deep. You can use liquid nails on the strip to ensure a solid adhesion because sometimes the mortar will crumble with the shorter tapcon. The more I think about it you will need to use at least 3/4 fur strips if you are hanging 1/2 d/w because your nail/screws fastening the d/w will have to be at least 1 1/4. Still use liquid nail as a back-up...it will not hurt.

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catalfanoc

I don't know if you have enough room to do this but I have ran a couple peices of furring stripping from left to right and then just screw up and down furring strips to them

Bob Kovacs

Forget the furring strips altogether- run a 1 5/8" metal stud wall across the face of the whole thing- no need for screwing into the brick, and a whole lot easier to get a smooth plane. You'll lose less than an inch over what you're talking about doing now, and save yourself hours of time.

Bob

Mike Finley

The furring is going to be 3 dimensional, going from shallow points of 3/4" deep to 8 inches deep, creating columns and a recessed art niche above the mantel. I would post the drawing but my scanner took a crap on me. It's basically going to end up being a 3 dimensional frame work that will create depth and structure and define the new fireplace. The old one is just a flat wall of brick.

Kind of along the idea of this picture where the drywall is creating 3d forms and shapes.


My general way of using tap cons has been with an impact driver using the hex headed versions.

Another question in regard to this, would you try to sink all the tapcons in the mortar between the bricks, just the bricks or sink them where ever they end up? Does is matter?

IHI

Mike, we'e had a couple remodels where budget and space dictated how we handled the situation. 2 jobs come to mind that the interior wall was literally brick that had a plaster skim coat. We gutted everything and then used adhesive and tapcons to hold the new rock in place until the glue set-up. I know for a fact we were drilling into mortor joints, brick, half and half, etc...drilling is obviously easier in the joints, but I think it's stronger when the tapcons are drilled directly into the brick since it's soo much harder. either way you'll be fine.

Sounds like a neat project

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