Exterior Design - Stucco, Mortar, Concrete Mix? HELP
 

Hello everyone.

Starting a little project for Momma Bear. She has a really nice outdoor patio in her condo which she spends most of the spring/summer/fall evenings on. The view is nice, but I'm really hoping an outdoor fire table is going to just be the icing on the cake.

The plan....

Make one of these.
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...fire+table.jpg

I purchased this insert off of amazon, along with a regulator and ignitor,
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....KL._SX425_.jpg

Tonight i'm making a frame out of steel studs, along with a 3/4" plywood base, and 1/2" top. The top will be using the same tiles for which her deck has been layed with.

The side of her building is concrete, and the pattern looks extremely similar to what a tile trowal leaves behind in mortar.

Example here...http://cdn1.tmbi.com/TFH/tips-app/FH13MAR_TILETX_03.JPG


What kind of material can I use, and what underlay etc can I use to replicate this for a durable exterior finish? I will be painting the side white to match the building when all said and done.

I've never dealt with tile, stucco, mortar, and very little experience with concrete. Does anyone have any suggestions? My concern is with how brittle this may be. A shallow wide imprint would probably be better. The whole table is only going to be ~24"x24".

Also, I will be doing this project in my living room. The less mess the better. It's also the reason i'm using steel studs as a frame, as well as pre cut 24" plywood top and base. Cutting the tile is going to be a bit messy.

Picked up the supplies and got to work.

Home depot guy suggested the use of a product there called "Stucco Patch". I'm going to use a 3/4" x 3/4" tile trowel. We'll see what kind of mess I get into. Yikes.

The Supplies

Attachment 28050

Partway through, couldn't wait and tossed some of the tile on top.

Attachment 28051

Frame Complete

Attachment 28052

So the plan is to use some concrete backer board on the sides, then stucco and paint over top. Then I'll tile the top. Hopefully it comes together alright.

Now I need to head out and buy the hole saws on sale at CT. Always needed an excuse to buy those. Will cut out area for around the fireplace insert.

After attempting to cut the concrete backing, it was just making waaaaayyyy too much mess in the space I have to use. I attempted the scoring, then breaking method but I really wasn't happy with the accuracy of that.

I decided to go the wood route even though I really wanted to stay away from the stuff. Since fire and wood go together way too well in all the wrong ways. It should be fine either way, but I still don't like the idea of it.

Yesterday I cut one piece of that concrete mess for the top, and did my first tiling job (Someone slap me if I ever think it's a good idea to do a kitchen or bathroom reno).

Today, I picked up one of those plastic mitre box's and a hand saw and went to work. Happy so far with how it's turned out. I haven't assembled anything, just cut it out and rest it all in place.

Progress! I actually had fun today. I've never really worked with wood since grade 7 woodwork class. 18 some years later, I seem to like it more then I did back then.

Attachment 28068

nothing wrong with that.. looks like you actually know what you're doing! lol

think it should look pretty good in the end

Haha thanks man. Things seems to workout better when I take my time. Now just need to find a warmer day to paint the stuff, then figure out a secure way to attach it all.

Ugh. Started painting it white. Doesn't look near as nice. No pictures until it's finished. haha Oh, also my adhesive didn't stick for the tiles. It wasn't meant for porcelin. So I sanding it all off (So much for no mess) and used subfloor adhesive by suggestion of a buddy.

Wish I had some more wood tools to make the finishing a bit nicer.

Did you use mastic or mortar for the tiles? If mortar, was it modified or unmodified? Did you tile directly to the plywood?

Edit: I just re-read that you used the cement board under the tile. You want to use a modified thinset mortar - mastic shouldn't be used where moisture is present. Put a thin, scratch coat over the cement board. A 1/2"x1/2" square notch should be sufficient for what your doing. Back butter the tiles, set them with a bit of pressure, set your spacing and make sure they're flat to each other with a level. Wait 24hrs before grouting.

It was an all in one grout/tile adhesive mix. Apparently not good for porcelain, or outdoors. Oops.

They are now on with subfloor adhesive. I guess we'll see.....

Well, almost finished it off this evening. Getting way too close to xmas for comfort.

Need to mount the gas cutoff better (You can see it's crooked), and then put some sealant on some of the fitting's and it's complete. Can't want to give it to her, and then give it a test run.

It is FAR from perfect, but for my first tiling and woodwork project I think it's alright.

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/o...219_220259.jpg

Regardless of if it's perfect or not, you put thought, time and effort into it, so kudos for that.

That looks awesome! It may not look perfect to you, but in my experience if you look at something store bought or done by someone else as closely as you end up looking at your own work you'll see they're far from perfect as well.

Are you planning on filling the insert with some coloured glass?

All her her large pots on the deck are filled with small round river rock style pebbles. I think I'll try that first. If it doesn't work out (I don't see why it wouldn't), I'll bite the bullet and pay $100 for some crushed glass lol.

Depending on the colour you want, just go break a rear window in a car at the wreckers. A friend of mine paid a bunch of money for crushed glass to fill a similar unit, and then realized it was basically the same as the safety glass from the rear window of his car that had gotten broken a few weeks before (but unfortunately had already been thrown out) :lol

Was going to suggest the same thing but I wasn't sure what temp the burners fire at. If tempered glass will work, hit up the free section of cl.

I have no idea if it can safely be done, for the $100 I'd just get the stuff you know will work and not have to worry.

My uncle owned a glass business for years. I should ask him what the temperature range is. It's seems that is exactly what it is though. The rocks will look good off the bat, but I'm not sure how clean the natural gas burns. They may get gunked up pretty quick.

Chalking this up as a success. Headed to my mom's this weekend to set up her patio for the season. Was finally able to test this thing. Too bad the pool is in pieces so we don't get the whole experience.

We used tempered glass for fill, conveniently they are redoing the railings in her building so we just asked the workers for some casualties. We may go for a Carribean blue to match the blue pool in the r future. I'm quite happy with it though.


http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/o...162316_HDR.jpg