Alternatives to skimming chimney breast required

[ukal]

Hi all.

So we ripped out the fireplace in our house and bricked up the hole then patch plastered over the hole. Unfortunately after sanding it down and a first coat of paint it looks terrible. You can see the outline of the hole as well as the uneveness of the wall where the fire surround once was. Admittedly this is in part due to my poor plastering skills!

So I was after some advise on the best way to sort this please. Bearing in mind there is coving already attached and skirting board on each side of the chimney breast, I thought I could either:

A) skim the wall (or ask a friend who can plaster). If I do this will I need edging beading as the plaster will be fairly thick and therefore need to skim each side if the chimney breast too?

B) plasterboard the front of the chimney and simply paint over the drywall?

Either option sounds like I might need to rijig the coving on the front of the chimney breast and skirtingboard already on the side of the breast(to extend it slightly over the front)?

Or maybe a polyfill type product to cover the front of the chimney without the need for edging/beading? I don't particularly want to use lining paper.

Can anyone please advise on what they would do? Such a small thing is causing me a big headache

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[AARUSS]

Hi Al
Difficult to be sure without seeing it. Are you looking for a perfect finish?

If you require a perfect finish then I would suggest taking off the skirtings and hacking off all the existing plaster back to brickwork and employ a good plasterer. Not sure how you adjust the coving, would suggest cutting a straight line through the plaster at the bottom of the coving with a stanley knife or an old hand saw so when you hack off the coving is not damaged.

If a perfect finish is not so important then hack off the plaster about 2-4" around the new infill and try to bevel the edge so that the new plaster can be feathered in to the existing. I would still suggest getting a plasterer to do this though.

Good luck

 

[dcdec]

Above, or hit the high spots with a sander and easifill (or similar) and sand flush

 

[ukal]

Thanks guys. Ideally I want to perfect finish as we're leaving it exposed (no wallpaper) but just painted but without the cost of a plasterer! Looking at it I think skimming the entire chimney breast might be overkill for just the bottom half that's a problem. I'll see what I can magic up with filler and a sander.

Thanks again

 

[sparkwright]

Can't see the chimney breast, but if you can, get it re-skimmed completely - front and maybe the sides - by a proper plasterer.

Anything else won't be a proper job by the sounds of it.

Hopefully you can do this without removing any coving and skirting boards, as plaster skim is usually very thin. Possibly if the chimney breast is in a bad state, there may be bits sticking out to remove first.

 

[ukal]

No bits sticking out but would you need to strip wall back and take original plaster off? Or can skimming be done over the top thinly enough not to effect coving/skirting board?

 

[sparkwright]

If the old surface is sound enough, a thin skim of a few mm can be applied over it. This is normal practice when renovating old houses - known as a re-skim. Any large holes etc will need patching first.

In this situation, coving and skirting boards are left in place.