Bricks, Masonry, Asphalt and Concrete - Installing pre-cast concrete stone

I have a brick fireplace in the living room that I would like to cover with pre-cast concrete stone. The brick is a rough finish (Exterior) with a floor level tile hearth. What prep work must be done to the brick for the vertical pre-cast stone installation and what type of morter would i use for the job? I plan on putting a single large hearth stone in a morter bed over the tile hearth.

Here some information, although probably not everything you want.

Here are some instructions on installing cultured stone.

http://www.culturedstone.com/technical/docs/cbrickinstall.pdf

http://www.culturedstone.com/technical/docs/cstoneinstall.pdf

Hope this helps.

I'm not a big fan of the cultured stone. About the only time I'd use it is if I want to veneer with large cobbles or river rock where the light weight of synthetic is required. For most other installations I use real stone. It is less expensive and it's real. The stones are generally about 1" thick so weight is not a problem for most veneer applications. For veneering I like to use a rich mortar mix of one part type S mortar to two parts sand. This makes a mixture that is extrememly strong and very sticky to hold the stones in place on a vertical wall.

Keep in mind that synthetic stones are concrete with paint. The pretty surface is just a think layer on top, so don't drop or scrape the stones which can cause scratches or chips. If you get mortar on the face do not use muratic acid to clean it like real stone. The acid can remove the paint from the fake stones.