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A laser-based ultrasonic system is used to measure the mechanical properties and thickness of mullite environmental barrier coatings deposited on SiC substrates. Narrow-band surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are generated with an amplitude modulated laser source, and a photorefractive crystal based interferometer coupled to a lock-in amplifier is used to detect the resulting surface displacement. The complex displacement field is mapped over a source-to-receiver distance of approximately 500µm in order to extract the wavelength of the SAW at a given excitation frequency, from which the phase velocity is determined. Dispersion curves measured over a frequency range of 100-180MHz are used to extract mean values for the elastic modulus and thickness of the coating over the measurement region. These values are compared to the mean elastic modulus and thickness of the coating measured using nanoindentation and optical microscopy, respectively. It is shown that porosity in the substrate can have a significant impact on the experimental results, particularly over short measurement distances. Experiments on SiC with 1-4% porosity show a linear increase of the mean SAW velocity with decreasing porosity. Additionally, measurements made on a sample with a given bulk porosity indicate that the SAW velocity varies locally, leading to additional error in the measurement of coating properties. This error can be reduced through spatially averaging the velocity measurements.