attaching wood to brick surround for cement board

[mcray]

When preparing the surround for hardibacker is the best process to shim and secure wood boards directly to the existing brick? Hardibacker would then be screwed into the wood and marble in preparation for tile.
Thank you

 

[KDubU]

Well I guess you could but what I did on my previous house was use cement board with two inch spacers and long screws through the board, spacers and then into the drywall and stud behind. I then put pieces of slate end cuts that came in sheets ( as I can’t think of a better term for it). This worked well and looked great IMHO as the tile of the pad were slate and I trimmed the wall section with a decorative trim all the while leaving the 2” gap to the wall. From what I see with your pics, you could do the same.

You could tapcon it it he brick.