Brick over plywood base

[pbc]

So I'm building a wine cellar in my basement and wanted two walls done with reclaimed brick (about 2x10x5/8" thick).

I will be screwing wine racks onto the brick, and the guy I was using to do the brick laying suggested putting a 1/2" plywood onto the drywall to provide extra support for the wine racking.

So I put up the plywood. He came by today and was going to use Omnigrio to apply the brick directly into the plywood.

But I read up on Omnigrip and saw nothing but nightmares from folks who used it.

So now he's suggesting metal lathe on the ply and a thin coat before applying the brick with thinset.

But I'm pretty nervous after his first suggestion.

Should I install maybe a 1/4" Cement board onto the ply and then thinset the brick onto the CB instead of the metal lathe?

Racks will be like the ones in the puck below. Except 2 to 3 bottles on each rack (I. E. It will come out 2 bottles at top and 3 bottles at bottom).

[Bob D.]

You are worried about the ability of the brick veneer to support the bottle racks I guess.

If the rails are secured back into the plywood with a proper fastener and you made use of every screw hole in the rail I would think that there would be nothing for the brick to do but look pretty. As long as the brick doesn't compress under the rails and allow them to loosen why would this not work? Be sure to use screws not nails to fasten the plywood to the studs. As far as screw spacing for fastening the plywood to the studs I would think 2 inch screws every 8 to 10 inches would be enough. DON'T use drywall screws, use construction screws.

Having said all that I have never done anything like what you propose so take it for what it's worth.

[pbc]

I was worried that the omnigrip wouldn't really take to the plywood having read many horror stories and had visions of bricks (and wine) crashing down in my head!

I ended up putting 1/4" CB over the ply and will use Flexbond or some similar mix to add the brick.

Between the CB and 1/2" ply, plus the drywall the racks should be safe.

[CWSmith]

I'm by no means a mason, but a few years ago after we purchase this old house I took note of the concrete on the basement wall that was loose and had actually pulled away from the poured concrete basement walls on both the inside and outside. I called two different companies, with the first scaring the he!! out me. Basically that my basement wall had to be excavated and re-poured... thousands of dollars!

A couple hours later, the second guy pulled up in a broken-down old station wagon. He looked at the outside, stated that the "inside looks the same way doesn't it?" He came in looked at it and gave me a quote of $600. Telling me the cover coating of concrete had just pulled away because of age (house was built in 1887) and there was nothing wrong with the structure. So he came, nailed on metal lathe and resurfed both inside and out. One afternoon for the inside and another for the outside. He gave me a five year warranty against any cracking. It's been twelve years now and not even a hairline crack anywhere.

At the time, I asked about the metal lath and he told me that it kept the concrete in place, moisture won't bother it and it adds stability and makes ensures adhesion to the old wall.

So in your case, I would imagine that using the lath over the plywood would ensure that adhesion to the plywood would be better structurally and give something that the concrete can really cling to. The concrete against the plywood alone might well not be all that sound. You definitely want that wine rack to bolt all the way though the brick and concrete and not just have the entire weight hanging on the brick and mortar. One has to stick to the other through the entire structure, like a sandwich. You cant just have part of the structure at risk from peeling off in layers. The brick needs the concrete and the concrete needs the lath which in turn needs the plywood, and of course the metal rack needs to go through these layers because it needs the plywood behind it all to stiffen the structure and provide a sound anchor for the wine rack.

CWS

[pbc]

Thanks. I ended up installing 1/4" Cement board on top of the ply wood. It will also give me some extra material when I need to screw wine racks on to it.

In terms of installing the bricks onto the Cement board... Any particular mortar recommended?

[blue_can]

Thanks. I ended up installing 1/4" Cement board on top of the ply wood. It will also give me some extra material when I need to screw wine racks on to it.

In terms of installing the bricks onto the Cement board... Any particular mortar recommended?

A good polymer modified mortar designed for attaching brick and stone veneer should work.

Something like this - https://www.specmix.com/polymer-modi...-mortar-pmavm/