surround question no one can answer

10 years ago

main install of my mendota mod 47 linear fireplace is complete except for the frame, which will be placed after drywall/paint. i had decided to go with the clean simple look of no tile/brick/wood surround. just the fireplace set in my wall. this look is featured several times in the mendota brochure. here's the problem.

for waranty/fire safety, my GC has to place a hardie board/cement board around the entire fireplace frame (non-combustable zone) but regular drywall will be used on the rest of the wall. so, how does one handle the joint transition from hardieboard to drywall? how does one make the hardie surface look like the surrounding drywall texture (orange peel).

my GC has made inquiries, i have a callout to jameshardie, mendota tells me what we need to do but not how to do it. online, the topic has been addressed with hardie to drywall, but it always pertains to shower/tile/moisture issues.

any personal experience with making a good hardie board to drywall transition? too late to go another route now, and i don't want to, but i'm worried that the brochures show my fireplace in a non realistic install - pretty to look at but dont turn the thing on.

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Comments (5)

T
9 years ago
Hi, hope everything worked out well for you. What did you end up doing? I'm in the same situation myself. Thanks!
lcmvh
Original Author
9 years ago
my gc surrounded the opening with cement board, approx 20" all around. he then mudded (regular tape and mud) a skim coat(s) to cover seam and raise the thickness of cement board to match the drywall. topped it with the texture i went with. i chose light orange peel texture and can see no seaming. i finished with two coats of SW regular interior paint. all looks great after one year of regular use. hopefully will not have any waranty issues down the road as the above really didn't confirm with what was recommended by mendota. would have played by the rules but the micore backing they recommended wasnt even available and second choice would have been a 5 hour one way trip for one sheet
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lcmvh
Original Author
9 years ago
fyi, have your gc take a photo of the firebox, pipes, studding, etc before it's covered up with drywall. thank gosh mine did, as when my fireplace guys came to install my magrahearth limestone look mantle shelf, they had questions on where they could position the shelf, hitting studs but not any guts of the fireplace unit. as my firebox is placed pretty low, the mantle is lower, too so kinda confused the mantle installers when they kept hitting metal with their fasteners. highly recommend the grey limestone look cement mantle from magrahearth. meets fire code, deflects heat from tv, looks great with linear fireplace/mcm lines.
T
9 years ago
Thank you so much for sharing this information! That's all very helpful to know. I'm glad everything worked out for you. It sounds beautiful and just the feel I would want. Thanks again!
linnertime
8 years ago
Your fireplaces sound great. Can you post a photo of final product? Thanks