Hi all,
My 1930's semi has had both upstairs fireplaces closed off. Current job in the renovation project is overhaul front bedroom. The plaster where the fireplace used to be was a shockingly bad DIY affair, and some of the other horrors i've found in the house made me very suspicious as to whether the fireplace was closed off appropriately.
So I investigated. With an SDS chisel.
I found that they'd chipped away the sides of the fireback, and mortared in a wooden frame round the edges. This had a zinc? (it looked like zinc, anyway) gauze nailed on, to which a good 3/4" of finishing plaster had been applied. A vent right at the bottom, in the skirting board, used to emit dust and crumbling bits of mortar.
I've removed all the loose material, and this is what i'm left with:-
The few bricks at the top of the opening are loose and practically falling out. I will remove these.
What's left of the fireback protrudes forward so that it's not possible to get a row of bricks in.
Does the fireback hold anything up? Theres a chunk of mortar at the top of it smoothing off the slope back into the flue. It strikes me that if i remove the whole fireback then i can do the standard bricks/ cramps & an airbrick job to close it off properly.
thanks for any advice.
slippy
My 1930's semi has had both upstairs fireplaces closed off. Current job in the renovation project is overhaul front bedroom. The plaster where the fireplace used to be was a shockingly bad DIY affair, and some of the other horrors i've found in the house made me very suspicious as to whether the fireplace was closed off appropriately.
So I investigated. With an SDS chisel.
I found that they'd chipped away the sides of the fireback, and mortared in a wooden frame round the edges. This had a zinc? (it looked like zinc, anyway) gauze nailed on, to which a good 3/4" of finishing plaster had been applied. A vent right at the bottom, in the skirting board, used to emit dust and crumbling bits of mortar.
I've removed all the loose material, and this is what i'm left with:-
The few bricks at the top of the opening are loose and practically falling out. I will remove these.
What's left of the fireback protrudes forward so that it's not possible to get a row of bricks in.
Does the fireback hold anything up? Theres a chunk of mortar at the top of it smoothing off the slope back into the flue. It strikes me that if i remove the whole fireback then i can do the standard bricks/ cramps & an airbrick job to close it off properly.
thanks for any advice.
slippy
