Matching old stone veneer that I can't buy


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Old 06-21-16, 09:30 PM
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Matching old stone veneer that I can't buy

I have to patch this grey wall. It's thin 1/2" veneer and probably 50 years old or something. I doubt I can find anywhere to buy this can I? I was thinking instead of re-doing the whole wall, I'll have power wash it or scrub it with a wire brush and then put a bonding agent and then I'll put a skim coat of stucco dyed grey and carve out the veneer pattern from the stucco. And then do a slightly darker gray tinted to do the tuck pointed around the bricks. which you can see is slightly darker. And then blot the fake bricks with a sponge etc to try and match the texture of the other bricks. Someone already attempted to fix this with the white patch stuff you see. Any suggestions? Maybe since it's such a thin application, I should just use something like a resurfacer that is good (strong) and being applied at such a thin application (especially over the white stuff someone already attempted to patch it with).

Also, the red brick steps, I'm re tuckpointing some of the damaged joints with mortar. Can I just use mortar for the grey wall bricks or does that really have to be stucco. I read a few months ago about stucco vs mortar and stucco is stronger or something, so should I just use stucco for the red brick joints also? So it doesn't look tacky, I'm going to mildly muriatic acid scrub the existing tuck joints on the steps that are fine so they brighten so the new tuckpoint joint repairs don't stand out so much. any suggestions? Thanks.

If there's leftover stucco/mortar, I will bonding agent the risers and skim coat over those also, or maybe just mild muriatic acid wire brush them. Name:  11.jpg
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Old 06-22-16, 04:30 AM
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Thin brick is still available, at least in my area. I seriously doubt you'll find anything in that size, but who knows? You may want to consider replacing the whole section in that area that's bad with new thin brick if there's a good starting and stopping point. Perhaps even the steps if they're structurally sound. Sometimes it's better to contrast a material so it looks intentional rather than a close miss. Just a thought without seeing the whole house.
 
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Old 06-22-16, 07:36 PM
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thanks for the replies. I guess I'm not about to start a wild goose hunt for these bricks if they ever are available. I'm just going to skim coat it and carve it to look like the bricks with dyed cement.

One thing I want to note is how I was asking if I had to use stucco for the wall instead of just the same mortar I'll use for the red brick stairs tuck joints or vice versa (stucco in the red stair joints). If stucco is indeed stronger and thus recommended for the wall, I don't think it should be used in the stairs because brick joints are actually supposed to be a bit weaker than the actual bricks for settling/frost heave etc, you want the joints to crack and need replacing before the bricks crack and need replacing.

I'll probably just use mortar for the wall also but instead of some of the water, for the wall I'll add some bonding agent/ fortifier which makes it a stronger material
 
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Old 06-22-16, 08:35 PM
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I don't have time to go through the whole process but look for a description of cut brick or stucco brick r something like that. The hard part is matching the colors. This is a two coat process done at t same time. Let us know if you find the info. If not I can post maybe tomorrow.
 
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Old 06-23-16, 12:19 PM
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true I think stucco guys often do the "scratch" and then the "brown coat" for stucco, possible because one coat as both is too thick but certain materials may allow for scratch and brown in the same day (besides curing accelerators) I'm not sure but not worried because this only a thin coat needed so I think part of why it's done in steps is to not go too thick with one coat. I'm just going to slap it on there dyed and then use a level to draw out the bricks then do a darker grout joint dyed in between.

I might mix a sample dyed and take a pic of what it looks like wet, let a blob of it cure on the lawn or something and then put it up to the wall to see how much darker/lighter I need to make it based on how much tint I added. too small of an amount to try and base it on the ratio of dye I add to the amount of stucco used - I would rather just take a pic (camera will probably alter the tint as well but I'm not going crazy over this trying to get it perfect).
 
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Old 06-24-16, 09:16 AM
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you are on the right track. Look at this video. omit whatever steps do not apply in your case. about four minutes in is an example of the tool you can use to carve the mortar joints into the brick. you can color the bricks by putting color into the mix. If it is not a close enough match you can mix up some mortar color and neat Portland cement and paint the brick and or the mortar joints. any piece of sheet metal even a tin can will work for your cutting tool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRqwZV3e5vo
 
 

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