Making good broken fireback for decorative fireplace

[Anto164]

Hi all,

Bear with me - First post here.

I purchased a 1920's property last year and we have been slowly going room by room stripping everything back and starting again. We have, in our back bedroom, an old open fireplace which we uncovered just - It was covered over for the past 60+ years with hardboard. The chimney is capped with a ventilating cowl, however the issue that i have is that when it was boarded over, someone has hacked through the fireback and put in an airbrick to ventilate the chimney stack.

Now, i want to make good the fireplace and have it for decorative use only (and have the stack ventilate from the room - The bottle green tiles are all in great nic and look great, so we want to have the fireplace as a feature in the bedroom. However, i haven't a great idea on how to fix the fireback. I was contemplating boarding over the airbrick at the back, and filling with 3 parts sand to 1 part cement and then just smooth off the front and paint black. However, i would like to take some recommendations.
I have had the chimney swept already so we're ready to undertake the repair.

Pictures are attached.

Any help would be welcome

Thanks

 

[Doggit]

You can purchase a new fireback from a stove shop, Or you could take it out, and use vermiculite fireboard insulation instead. If you vent the chimney from the room, then you're going to have one hell of a draught, so it might be better to put a closure plate at the top of the chimney throat, and put in a smaller vent hole. Venting from the outside means no visible holes inside, but it then means that you are drawing in cold air to the chimney, and cooling down the inner chimney breast.

Have you thought about installing a wood burner.

 

[Anto164]

Thanks for that - just to be clear, there is hardly any air flow up the chimney - So much so we wouldn't be able to light a fire if we wanted to. The main bit of work is blocking up the hole that is there - We're never ever going to have a burner or a fire of any description there, we just want to make it look reasonably nice and without a big hole to outside. Just not sure best way.

 

[Doggit]

If there's no airflow up the chimney, then it's very likely been capped off, so ventilation needs to be reinstated top and bottom. You could just take out the rear vent and block it up from the outside. Then cement the hole in the back of the fireplace, and just paint it all.

 

[vinn]

OP,
I notice that you have a "ventilating cowl" at the flue terminal and have had the flue swept.
This would suggest that you already have through ventilation up the flue - how else would you have been able to sweep the flue?
Unless "the main bit of work" (whatever that means) took place after the sweeping, & has now blocked the flue at some point?

Given that you are in a first floor bedroom, if necessary, it might be best to confine any flue venting from within the bedroom, not from outside.


Ref. the hole:
Mix semi-dry sand and cement at a 3:1 mix and use some black food colouring in the water.
Patch the hole, and just before it sets smooth it off.

At all costs keep the tiles in good nick - they look great but wheres the mantle?