Hi,
I want to cover the brickwork on my fireplace recess and also on the face of the fireplace prior to installing a woodburning stove that will give off convected heat from both sides and the rear, radiant heat from the front. I am involving Building control who will check the work done. The problem I have is the width of the recess is currently 580mm and the width of the woodburner is 510mm. As gypsum plaster would crack over a temperature of 50 celcius, I am thinking of using hydraulic lime plaster but would like to know if I can get away by putting two thin scratch coats followed by a thin finishing coat on each side of the recess with a total thickness of 10mm (around 3mm thickness for each coat)? Or maybe two coats only, say 7mm for the scratch and 3mm for the finishing coat? Once installed, the woodburner will come forward, leaving a gap of around 250mm at the back but 25mm on each side. 25mm is a bit narrow but I’m trying to avoid making the coats thicker to reduce the gap even further. I’m not contemplating widening the recess, that would be too much work as it is solid brick. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts.
Many thanks.
I want to cover the brickwork on my fireplace recess and also on the face of the fireplace prior to installing a woodburning stove that will give off convected heat from both sides and the rear, radiant heat from the front. I am involving Building control who will check the work done. The problem I have is the width of the recess is currently 580mm and the width of the woodburner is 510mm. As gypsum plaster would crack over a temperature of 50 celcius, I am thinking of using hydraulic lime plaster but would like to know if I can get away by putting two thin scratch coats followed by a thin finishing coat on each side of the recess with a total thickness of 10mm (around 3mm thickness for each coat)? Or maybe two coats only, say 7mm for the scratch and 3mm for the finishing coat? Once installed, the woodburner will come forward, leaving a gap of around 250mm at the back but 25mm on each side. 25mm is a bit narrow but I’m trying to avoid making the coats thicker to reduce the gap even further. I’m not contemplating widening the recess, that would be too much work as it is solid brick. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts.
Many thanks.