Coating an internal chimney

[allanmartin]

Hello All

We have a chimney in the middle of our house which is exposed (see photo).
The bricks are quite dirty and the lime/cement morter rubs on on clothes etc when touched.

As a test, I put a little clear varnish on a part of the chimney and that sorted the problem.

Is there an issue with using a clear matt varnish to coat the entire brick work? The chimney does not get hot at all when used (very occasionally). A builder told me its no problem at all, but just interested to check.

Cheers and thanks to anyone!

Al

View media item 85157 View media item 85157

 

[ree]

There's no fire opening for using the flue, unless the floor below has a fire opening thats sometimes used with a fire of some kind?

The partially demolished chimney breast is definitely not best practice.

You could varnish the brickwork but the varnish would begin to perish pretty rapidly - that kind of thing was slightly popular in the seventies and it looked cheap and tatty.
Have you thought about simply plastering the brickwork?

Hot fumes in the remaining flue - if it is a remaining flue - should have no effect on any varnish.

Has the old flue been vented top and bottom?

 

[catlad]

Watered down PVA glue will seal the brickwork.