diff --git a/include/openmc/mesh.h b/include/openmc/mesh.h
index 6d2c2f0296..0ace6dfea7 100644
--- a/include/openmc/mesh.h
+++ b/include/openmc/mesh.h
@@ -7,13 +7,13 @@
 #include <unordered_map>
 
 #include "hdf5.h"
-#include "pugixml.hpp"
 #include "xtensor/xtensor.hpp"
 
 #include "openmc/memory.h" // for unique_ptr
 #include "openmc/particle.h"
 #include "openmc/position.h"
 #include "openmc/vector.h"
+#include "openmc/xml_interface.h"
 
 #ifdef DAGMC
 #include "moab/AdaptiveKDTree.hpp"
diff --git a/src/mesh.cpp b/src/mesh.cpp
index d849e5d55d..771d6f81f2 100644
--- a/src/mesh.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh.cpp
@@ -2324,6 +2324,14 @@ const std::string LibMesh::mesh_lib_type = "libmesh";
 
 LibMesh::LibMesh(pugi::xml_node node) : UnstructuredMesh(node)
 {
+  std::string& filename = node.get_node_value(node, "filename");
+  double length_multiplier = std::stod(node.get_node_value(node, "length_multiplier"));
+  set_mesh_pointer_from_filename(filename);
+  set_length_multiplier(length_multiplier);
+  if (specified_length_multiplier_) {
+    libMesh::MeshTools::Modification::scale(*m_, length_multiplier_);
+  }
+  m_->prepare_for_use();
   initialize();
 }