Exposed fire place boarding

[samiebon1]

Unearthed the original fire place yesterday after it was completely bricked up. Looking for advice on how to board up completely - my current thoughts were:

- chimney sweep flue
- bung flu with balloon/insulation (cap chimney with vent in due course)
- scrub remaining soot/salts
- batten the walls and arch
- Plasterboard all over (potentially add vent at top)
- skim

My questions also are:

- Any tips on battening the arch, and curving the plaster board?
- Should I use any special plasterboard? Noting we don't intend to put a log burner or anything in there.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jake2021]

Personally I’d brick/block it up and install a vent then on your pots puts some ridge tiles or caps.
Once bricked up then skim it. This will allow the chimney to breath and air flow but not cause damp.

 

[samiebon1]

Hi @Jake2021 we've effectively just undone that work funnily enough see the photo with what we started with and what I've now done. Cheers for the input!

 

[Jake2021]

What are you actually trying to do with it?

 

[samiebon1]

We're just going to leave it as a recess for storage, clean the bricks up best we can first.

I've had the chimney swept and it's already capped at the top, so going to put some insulation up to limit any draft/things falling randomly but put a small vent in below just for minor ventilation.

 

[Jake2021]

Ok that makes more sense of
What your trying to accomplish, any sort of plaster board on there and you will Regret it in that vicinity .

You really have two options imo
1-clean the brickwork Up skim some browning on then skim coat on top of there
2- put some tile backer board on and skim that.

Personally I’d go for option 1.

If you are wanting to keep the brick
Effect the

1- tile backer and brick slips
2 rebuild the inner blocks

Hope this makes sense?
Best wishes
Jake