LESLIE: Doug in Texas is working on a fireplace project. How can we help you?
DOUG: I purchased a 35-year-old home – brick home – and inside it had burned. The fireplace, of course, had burned real bad – you know, where the flames came out – and it actually scorched the brick. I tried to clean the brick; it would not clean, so I painted it – unfortunately for me. (Tom and Leslie chuckle) Now here I am ten years later and I hate the look of the painted brick and I want to remove it. So I found out I can’t do anything but sandblast it.
LESLIE: Yeah, totally.
DOUG: Well, I cannot afford professional sandblasting. So I heard you, last week, talk to a caller and you had mentioned a faux-type stone that was manufactured by Owens Corning …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
DOUG: … and I wondered where I might find that and also how it is applied to that brick that is painted?
LESLIE: Well, the product that you’re talking about is by Owens Corning and it’s called their cultured stone and the website is CulturedStone.com.
DOUG: That’s great.
LESLIE: And there are a ton of different styles from a ledgestone to a river rock. I mean they’re beautiful choices. I’ve used it on the exterior of homes before. It’s also for use on interiors. If you go to the website CulturedStone.com and look on their photo gallery, there’s a whole bunch of ideas for fireplaces. I mean the website is very user-friendly. You can find installers in your area and dealers in your area so you can actually go look at this. I’ve installed it myself on an exterior. They really do recommend working with a pro just to make sure it’s done properly. But it is a gorgeous product. It’s very affordable and you can really achieve any look that you like for that fireplace and maybe get one that you enjoy sitting by.
TOM: And Doug, if you do want to try to install that yourself, Owens Corning actually has step-by-step video instructions on CulturedStone.com. Simply click on the installation video and it’ll walk you through those details. Talks about the installation techniques, how to install it on different types of surfaces, how to prepare the stone, how to prepare the mortar and so on; so you really can do this yourself. And I tell you, it really is gorgeous stuff. As Leslie said, we’ve used it on a number of projects and it looks fantastic.
DOUG: Oh, that would be wonderful. I will pull that up on the website tonight and research that and find out how to do the install.
TOM: Fantastic. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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