Bugs is right--look and quality are hard to tell in a picture, and my guess is that the lower the cost the worse the quality. All are light and need to be staked down, another step in checking your skimmer. You can find a skimmer top that looks like stone for many skimmers, how realistic they are I don't know--but they won't blow away. Look at the post on Hiding Utilities and see how others are making custom tops for their skimmers. Plant a few flowers around your utility post and enjoy.

You need to take the shiny junk (sounds like masonite tileboard - plasticky stuff on a thin brownish-black backing, thicker than formica?) off and replace it. You probably won't like hearing this but just glopping some joint compound over top of a crappy substrate - even if it does stick, which I'm quite dubious about - doesn't really make you any better than the PO where cutting corners is concerned! There are lots of places where you can cut costs to permit you to actually do the job correctly. Substitute inexpensive light fixtures and accessories like towel bars/tp holder/cabinet knobs/etc. (which are all easy-peasy to replace later when you're flush again), do the demolition work, take care of cleaning the jobsite every day, power-shop for bargains like there's no tomorrow, and that's just a start. Yeah, drywall is DIYable, but there is a distinct learning curve; my current house, a rehab/flip, is an excellent example of an apparently-first-time DIYer doing drywall (probably out of a book and maybe a video) and clearly getting impatient with the fiddliness of it all. It looks like absolute s***, and all has to be redone. Unless you have lots of time and even more patience, drywalling is a good place to spend some of your remodeling dollars. A handyman with good sheetrocking skills (get references and look at his/her past work!) may well be cheaper than an actual drywaller, especially for a small job. The other option I can suggest if you really want to bag out on drywalling properly, but which may not necessarily be any more cost-effective, is beadboard panelling (the plywood or MDF type, painted thoroughly). Some products can be installed right over the studs. Depending on your architecture and decor, it can look quite charming to simply run it floor to ceiling.

We had faux rock also. The surrounding area was drywall. If I recall, there was wire mesh and such behind the rock. You say you do not want to ruin the brick so it sounds like you already know what is behind yours?? I would think there is mortar behind the rock and it is stuck to the brick?? I am not sure how you would remove without harming the brick. Now for our situation we got a pneumatic jackhammer/chisel attachment for our air compressor. DH said it was a lifesafer for removing the rock. Our raise hearth was made of cement retaining wall type builders bricks. It took two solid days to remove all the debris but he said it would have taken longer by hand. I think pics of what you actually have would really help.

eriky....Thanks for sharing your thoughts on our faux rock. Our PB said the costs are roughtly about the same, but I think it depends on how much rock and how labor intensive the rock kit from Rico Rock is. They have modular kits, hybrid kits and also entirely custom jobs with onsite trained labor to use a combination of their products to create the design intent. They sell only through local PB's who have prior installation experience or attended training courses. The modular kits can be installed by handy DIY'ers and only require mortar. The hybrid kits require trained labor as these kits require rebar, concrete and some forming prior to concrete pouring. The custom jobs are done by trained folks who have expertise in using combinations of boulders and rock panels to create large rock formations...there's some impressive structures on their website...including a pool house that is made entirely of Rico Rock product and looks like a massive rock structure from the outside but has televisions, wet bar and hot tub inside! Ours was a combination of modular and hybrid kits and we had someone from their headquarters in Orlando, FL on site for a few days to help the PB hands with installation. I was also there the entire time to makes sure the boulders were placed as specified and make any last minute changes in boulder placement to create the look we wanted. For this part of the country, the labor was about the same as the actual product costs...example, if the boulder/kit costs were $10K total, the labor to install would be $10K for a total cost of $20K for the entire rock job. This will likely vary depending on region of the country and local labor costs. Hope this helps!