I hope this is the right subforum to put this in, I couldn't find one that covered tiling.

We have a brick fireplace mantle in a downstairs (daylight basement, dirt side) family room. The brick is 90% "clean and dry" but there is one small section that has "powdered" due to some light moisture. This has affected both the brick and the mortar. We haven't used this much so I really can't tell if it was a something that happened over time or relatively quickly.

I'd like to tile over the entire mantle and wondering if I might run into trouble with this issue. At the very least I'd clean it up well, maybe using muriatic acid? Looking for any suggestions to hopefully keep the tile intact.

Thanks,
BB

 

I'd chisel down the mortar high spots. Go over everything with a wire brush to remove loose material. Then thoroughly vacuum with a shop vac to remove any dust from the nooks & crannies. You can wash with muriatic acid if you want but I don't see where that will help anything and you'll have a bugger of a job properly rinsing the acid off.

 

Thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear!

BB