Hello,
I hope I am in the right forum here, but i really don't know how to explain this in technical terms
We have an old terraced house (build 1875) and in one corner of the room in the alcove, the ceiling drops and forms like a ledge. There is coving around the ceiling but obviously drops and is uneven around this corner so we wanted to know what was causing the drop, and we wanted to find the best/easiest/cheapest way to level the ceiling off.
When we have taken the paper off we can see that there is a piece of wood in this corner with a piece of plywood also attached to form another layer, so to speak. It also appears that it goes in to the original fireplace wall and also in to the external wall, assumingly for support?
What is also strange is that one square corner of this area seems to have been filled several times but it almost seems as if this whole area has been put in around this square, maybe to space it out across the whole alcove area.
My girlfriends mother, who is a bit of a know it all seems to think that this may be from an old chimney (coal) for a whites wash, but I really haven't got a clue what it is or why it is there, other than I know that there has to be a reason why someone would have done that, and more importantly why everyone who has lived here has just decorated around it without taking it down.
I wondered if anyone has come across this before and if anyone knows what it is. Also, having established what and why, I want to know if this is something that can be removed.
Above this area is where our combi boiler lives in the bedroom but also wondering whether there may have been some old heavy boiler system that may have possibly needed additional support in the olden days.
I hope someone can help me with this. It may be better to provide a picture to be honest, so i can provide this if necessary.
Thanks In Advance
Andrew
I hope I am in the right forum here, but i really don't know how to explain this in technical terms
We have an old terraced house (build 1875) and in one corner of the room in the alcove, the ceiling drops and forms like a ledge. There is coving around the ceiling but obviously drops and is uneven around this corner so we wanted to know what was causing the drop, and we wanted to find the best/easiest/cheapest way to level the ceiling off.
When we have taken the paper off we can see that there is a piece of wood in this corner with a piece of plywood also attached to form another layer, so to speak. It also appears that it goes in to the original fireplace wall and also in to the external wall, assumingly for support?
What is also strange is that one square corner of this area seems to have been filled several times but it almost seems as if this whole area has been put in around this square, maybe to space it out across the whole alcove area.
My girlfriends mother, who is a bit of a know it all seems to think that this may be from an old chimney (coal) for a whites wash, but I really haven't got a clue what it is or why it is there, other than I know that there has to be a reason why someone would have done that, and more importantly why everyone who has lived here has just decorated around it without taking it down.
I wondered if anyone has come across this before and if anyone knows what it is. Also, having established what and why, I want to know if this is something that can be removed.
Above this area is where our combi boiler lives in the bedroom but also wondering whether there may have been some old heavy boiler system that may have possibly needed additional support in the olden days.
I hope someone can help me with this. It may be better to provide a picture to be honest, so i can provide this if necessary.
Thanks In Advance
Andrew