Vermiculite mix?????

[Sean85]

Hey, in desperate need of advice!! I've searched the Internet and found loads of info on concrete vermiculite mixes, what I need to know tho is can I make a motar mix for laying bricks with vermiculite in, if so what ratio sand cement vermiculite?? I'm using it to build a brick hearth. I've got a big bag of very fine vermiculite. I've also heard that you can supposedly use vermiculite in plastering on chimney breast to make it heatproof and stop it from cracking and blowing,, I don't know how true this is nd if someone's just telling me tall stories?!! Any and all help with this would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Sean.

 

[jeds]

Vermiculite mortars are normally 1:6 or 1:8 but it depends on the grade of the vermiculite. Frankly I don't think you could go far wrong as long as your vermiculite is fine enough - i.e. 0.3mm or thereabouts. You could use the same mortar for rendering.

 

[onecog]

Hi.
I have installed a lot of parkway type stoves (glass door) where i used vermiculite as a back fill all around the stove (6-1 mix) but i have never heard of using it for laying bricks.

 

[onecog]

Jeds has told you your answer.
Never knew about using it for brickwork.

 

[stuart45]

Use a lime mortar.

 

[Sean85]

Well I can't seem to find anything about using it for laying bricks but I imagine it should be fine. Because I'm building a brick hearth I wanted to make it as heatproof as possible, I have a granite slab to put in directly underneath the fire grate and will bed that in with a sand cement and vermiculite mix as well. I just didn't wanna mix it and then have the vermiculite rise and be visible?! The vermiculite is very very fine, almost like fine sand, so should hopefully be ok. I was going to use a sand cement vermiculite mix to render the chimney breast level then try mixing the vermiculite with multi finish to put a nice smooth finish on the chimney breast, because of the vermiculite in the plaster it should give it a greater heat tolerance, this is what I've been told anyhow?!! I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and go down the road of trial and error but was just seeing if anyone else had done this?! I'm bedding my clay fire insert/back with just a cement vermiculite mix, I've read this is supposed to be 10 vermiculite to 1 cement.......is this correct? Sorry for all the questions but don't want the whole thing to be a waste of time and money. Would be nice if some of it went to plan!!! 😛