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Thought I'd posted this, seems it disappeared....forum gremlins?
I have been tasked with decorating the back room ready for christmas guests. Turns out the wallpaper was holding on large chunks of plaster to the old chimney breast. It's over corners and there is several large areas where the key has gone and its only a matter of time before that comes off too.
Wife has said may as well expose it to create a feature, messy job I know, but probably more doable than me trying to patch badly or pay a fortune for a plasterer
Sadly it's horrible grey brick, so the thinking is to remove the rest of the plaster on the small chimney - probably talking less than an hour with clean up. And then paint with white masonary paint.
Questions for those who've done or considered it -
1. Stupid idea?
2. what products did you use? does it need sealing before hand ? The sections that are exposed are very dusty
Eventually we'd like to take out the chimney as its removed in the floor below, and it takes up a large % of the tiny back room. That is definitely not on the cards this side of christmas 🙂
It won't ned sealing, masonry paint will go straight onto brick, that's what it's for. Just give it a good brushing/hoovering/washing beforehand to get as much of the dust off as possible
probably talking less than an hour with clean up.
Ahahahahaha ahahahahaha ahahahahaha ha
And indeed lol.
The beds and joints will be the issue, either riddles with holes of lots of rock hard mortar jagging out. Either painting that will be grim and you'll want to point it.
I'd take it out* make one mess and be done with it. Atleast tgen when you have to sort the exposed bit you only do it once.
*Under advice etc dropping a chimney on someone with a fat bastard in a red suit wedged inside is generally a bad Christmas gift.
Can't take the brest fully out now, as its the downstairs bit thats removed, it still has the stack up through the roof so would need scaffolding the whole works to remove it properly.
Re clean up, okay maybe I'm being optimistic, its going to come off in massive chunks so that bits going to be quick....
Re clean up, okay maybe I’m being optimistic, its going to come off in massive chunks so that bits going to be quick…
Its the not big chunks that will suck the time.
My point was really that theres alot of work to make the wall ready for paint. This is a brick wall thats never been exposed so its likely to be a bit of a mess and paint won't fix that.
Is my experience anyway.
Probably worth a wash coat , followed by a top coat.
Sandtex micro pore breathable paint to allow moisture transfer.
What's the brick? If it's old stuff with lime mortar then it's probably breathable, meaning use breathable paint unless you want it to start flaking off at some point.
Just give it a good brushing/hoovering/washing beforehand to get as much of the dust off as possible
This. When I did this exact job there was loads of old plaster still clinging to the bricks and I had to go over it with a wire brush to remove it all.
probably talking less than an hour with clean up.
What joshvegas said! Good luck with that 😉
It's not a job I'd be starting with only two weekends left before Christmas!!
The pointing on the chimney breast will be as rough-as-f... for a start! It wasn't built to be seen.
Yeah, less than an hour is an Edinburgh Festival worthy one liner.
We exposed the (lime mortared) chimney in our room. Took ages to clean it to an acceptable standard and then had to patch bits. It will take yonks. Best bet IMHO is either a plasterer, or have a go with some tapered edge boards, tape and filler. I managed to make some rooms look not awful with that method and a lot of sanding. If you paper over the top it'll be even easier.
Sugar soap it. Twice. Once with a scrubbing brush then with a car sponge. Then when its thoroughly dry & depending on how well it holds together I'd consider prepping it with some SBR or a PVA solution. Is the chimney capped and vented properly?
Fully expect everything you possess to become riddled with plaster and mortar dust, particularly if you set to it with a wire brush.
Oh and that's a full weekend's work at least.
For christmas.
Stable some material to the wall in a drapey manner.
Deal with it when you have more time.
You will only make things worse in time for Christmas unless you are taking time off.
Hoovering the entire house and your arse crack alone will take you to new years.
have a go with some tapered edge boards, tape and filler.
This or glue some MDF T&G boards over what's left and paint.
Sods law dictates that your original plan will go badly.
okay some pics: no idea on brick type or whether chimney is capped, its really tall and not accessible. The bottom section was removed at least 2 owners ago, so if it wasn't capped I'd think we would have spotted some problems with damp
as you can see someone in the past has patched the cracks, pretty much the whole side moves when you push on it and is ready to come down. sections of the front sound hollow too so have lost their key
patching is possible, though I doubt it will look nice....
Remove the old plaster and stick some plasterboard over it. Tape and fill the edges. Abrade the filler when dry and then paint.
Yeah i wouldnt patch that. Okay fair enough the removal of the remaining plaster might be quite quick.
The problem is the condition of the bricks. All those broken corners, cracks in the jointing and random holes. Paint won't cover them. Theres a good chance it will look worse. Alot worse.
Having said that... The wall generally looks quite even and flat. I'd probably just remove the plaster to solid and take stock, accepting no further action might be the best course of action until after the holiday.
plasterboard is a good shout, hadn't thought of that, reckon I've even got some in the back of the shed.
going to remove the really loose bits this evening and see what state its in. may get away with leaving the front face alone for short / med term
it needs to be habitable, (ideally!) look nice for the 28th Dec
budget allowing the whole thing is coming out in the next couple of years as its redundant and takes up a big chunk of the room
It's the bits that are still stuck to the brick that worry me ....... could be hard to get off.
I agree that chimney needs to come out but it's a big job as the stack needs supporting in the roof.
Good luck!
Can’t take the brest fully out now, as its the downstairs bit thats removed, it still has the stack up through the roof
If the downstairs bit has been removed, what is supporting this bit of chimney breast, the bit in the loft space and the chimney stack up on the roof?
Is this on an external wall, or adjoining a neighbour's property? Have they also removed their ground floor chimney breast?
You might have an awful lot of unsupported weight there...
Short answer is I don't know what is holding it up, but, I did have a structural engineer look at it as part of works I have had done recently, and he didn't seem too concerned, other than advising taking it out was a good plan
Its quite a narrow tall chimney - behind that is the family bathroom so its fully internal to the house. I think it might have been a later addition for a boiler downstairs at some point. There isn't any evidence of an open fire which we have in other rooms. You can also see a metal flue of some description sticking out the top, the house seemed to have some major remodelling in the 50s so possibly from that era at a guess.
Looking back at previous sales photos its been like this for at least twenty years possibly more
How temporary of a job are you planning on doing?
If it's just to get you out the other side of Christmas & your guests visiting, I'd be tempted to just get some thin sheets (MDF/OSB/Plyboard?), screw them into place & then paint with white emulsion.
Then resolve properly come the New Year.
That Brickwork looks grim, Ill wager itll look crap when you get all the plaster off
either do it properly as lambchop says, my only caveat as a crap plasterer is that youll end up having to sand lots and that dust gets everywhere
With no prior skill I did a massive conservatory, including the curved roof, it took months caused a huge mess but got there in the end.
having a few good tools helps, youtube will show you how
or cut a bit of plasterboard, fill the gaps, sand and paint/ wallpaper over it and worry about it falling apart at a later date
Those...
...look like lightweight insulation bricks to me - like concrete aero bar.
They are as soft as cheese and crack as soon as look at them. The plaster will fall off 90% of them, but be stuck like the proverbial in the other 10%, to the extent that you will likely pull chunks out of the bricks getting it off.
I'd abandon the plan of getting them to look presentable - strip the old plaster & replace with plasterboard IMHO.
The knack with filling joints is scrim tape and several thin coats of easifil. Thin coats dry quickly so build up layers until you get to the level you want. Then it’s minimal sanding. If you go in with a bit thick coat of filler that is proud of the finish level you’ll be sanding forever and creating shed loads of dust.
here you go, 5 minutes with the paint scraper looks like a big old crack hence the plaster loosing its key - been like this along time as it had been patched up before under a few layers of wall paper:
joshvegasFree Member
For christmas.Stable some material to the wall in a drapey manner.
And then add your choice of a BabyJesus, 3 wise men, a donkey or two, a manger etc for the full effect
It looks like some of those bricks have cracked which suggests movement.
It looks like some of those bricks have cracked which suggests movement.
Which, as its been stated theres no chimney below it could mean they didn't put much there in to hold it up....
I'd be getting rid of that as soon as I could.
I removed chimney breasts from 4 rooms in my house a couple of years ago. Its an easy job, but the shittiest job in the world ever! I think as standard brickies just fill the bit around the flue with any old shit. I was sneezing black snot for about a week afterwards, even though I was wearing a good mask!
ok run out of time for lunch. I found a hatch. Any ideas what this was? That flue inside looks mighty shiny and new. two full henrys full of debris inside the hatch. Old school wood screws indicate the hatch itself is old(er) than the flue inside
I'm reckoning the section to the left of the chimney is just boxed in for the flue, but, it seems solid and the 'shelf' bit above looks old so not sure
No dust sheet down! [insert shocked emoji!]
Any ideas what this was?
I assume for access to the chimney to clean it?
Edit: No, surely it can't be – that would be bloody dangerous surely?
And more vertical cracks – I was once told that if they follow the mortar lines then it isn't necessarily an issue – just general light movement, but if they are straight and go through bricks, it is more critical. Saying that, they are lightweight bricks so perhaps they break more easily?
carpets going in the bin so not bothered with it.
tomorrows job is going to be boards up and see whats under the chimney.... have decided it needs to come out as soon as weather is okay enough to be doing stuff on the roof. Needs the stack taken down before I can do the internal stuff.
Its surprisingly not that dusty....stuff is just coming off in big chunks. I am still wearing a mask / gloves / googles
This was supposed to be a quick re-paint job. *sigh*
The wall the chimney is against looks like it was plastered prior to the chimney being built, so I'm thinking it might not be toothed in, That said its a lot wider in the loft and above the roof, so maybe there were two flues inside the stack with a brick seperation
Go for it ...
I whacked emulsion over an internal brick wall in my down stairs toilet ... Looks great, a nice dark/rich blue.
What's the worst that can happen?
If it doesn't turn out as expected, make good after xmas.
Good luck
Edit .... sorry looks like I was too late
Double good luck now
Plaster was holding up the block work...
Supply your guests with hard hats and an emergency escape ladder out of the window 😉
These bricks are classed as sand/lime hydraulic pressed then baked in a steam autoclave probably built in the late '70's
If they are 65mm deep then metric or a few mm thicker imperial but the change over was late 70's
That died a while ago that type of manufacturing of bricks, lack of adhesion for plaster/harling probably the main reason
They will have a frog not holes
I'm heartened to see that it isn't just my house where every small job turns into a mission. The last one was redoing the wallpaper in the hallway then recarpeting the stairs. Which degenerated into discoving the plaster was shot, so stripped back to brick and redone, removing the old carpet post plaster removal revealed that the stairs were built out of at least two different staircases and knackered to the point of needing replacement, buuut they also had wiring running through them that needed rerouting, this also requiried the understairs toilet to be redone, which revealed that the stairs were held up with a brick wall that formed part of the door to the understairs loo (the "lintel" was two pieces of metal shelf), during this one of the acro-props went onto a void in the tiled halway floor, cracking a tile, tapping the floor revealed numerous voids, requiring the whole floor to be replaced in the end.
My partner was 7 months pregnant at the time. Which added some extra spice to the proceedings. We settled at doing the stairs and then getting everything else done later.
It's finished now, but if we buy another house we're getting one with a recently redone hallway.
On the plus side OP.
Thats a legitimate "we can't hot you at Christmas" card to b played.
This was supposed to be a quick re-paint job. *sigh*
Now look what you've done!!!
I have been tasked with decorating the back room ready for christmas guests.
That seems like a long time ago already!
Looks like we've got the Xmas thread sorted.
Oh yes, every job turns into a bloody nightmare - last time I decorate inside I ended up rewiring the hall as I whilst I had the boards up in the bedroom..... hence my reluctance to touch anything these days!
bricks are 6.5x11x22. My guess was 50s but 70s is just as likely, useful input thanks! Its been there a long time, and there have been several attempts at patching the plaster and then wallpapering over Not sure when the lower part was removed. Shiny flue makes me think it was in use more recently than I first thought
all the plaster is off the chimney looks like it isn't keyed into the wall or the bit to the left in the pics.
any ideas how much removing the stack and making good the roof is likely to be? Once its internal I can do the rest
Still not decided what to do temporarily - I'm thinking some plasterboard over the top will do the trick as a temp measure before its removed.
Plasterboard is cheap. Bash it on with some no nails or even cheap silicone. Rather than fill the joins you could wrap the pboard with lining paper then paint. It’ll do Donkey, it’ll do!
Scaffolding might be about £2k.
Need a skip as well? Another £300.
My roofer charges £250 a day plus £100 for a helper. 2 days work I would have guessed, plus materials.
Don't forget that there will be ceilings and a floor to make good also.
Have you looked in the loft? Is it the same brick all the way up and out of the roof or does it change?
I think it may be possible to leave the external chimney and remove the stack from within the loft downward. But it will definitely need supporting.
I'd want to know why all that brickwork has cracked. A guess is that it's because the chimney was removed on the ground floor and what was left is not supported.
Anyway, isn't the effort you put in this side of Christmas proportionate to the nature of the guests you are hosting?
Family - leave as it, hoover up and chuck them in there. 🙂
Posh friends you want to impress - best book them into a nearby hotel!
Also, if it's coming out after Christmas I'd just PVA it to seal the dust in and then clean up. Not like your guests will be doing owt other than sleeping in there.
Gallows brackets underneath remaining chimney stack. I wouldn't use them but that is the recommended way , or rsj .
its rendered in the loft and then outside is redbrick
i would hope it has some sort of support as when we first moved in the supporting wall this would have been part of had been completely removed to make a big kitchen. we actually have put a stud wall in beneath it
anyway ill find out tomorrow lunch
if it’s for a couple of months I wouldn’t even bother with plasterboard and I’d probably keep the wife happy and paint it with masonry paint and worry about it in the new year
on the roof work depending where you are scaffolding is about a grand so I’d imagine another grand on that?
We had a chimney removed from our house in March 2022.
It was all the way down to ground level & terminated with a floor to ceiling brick-built cupboard that housed the original oil-fuelled boiler (and subsequently the CH gas boiler). We'd already had a new boiler relocated to the airing cupboard on the landing.
The cupboard had an internal 6" concrete plinth that the chimney & flue sat on, roughly at eye level. Above that was non-accessible (just brickwork to the ceiling) and below it was open cupboard space.
Anyway - total cost to remove all the way down from roof level, including making good the roof, floors, plastering & adding some new electrical sockets was ~£3.5k. We had full scaffolding up to the chimney level.
Going back a bit, the hatch is indeed an access panel for cleaning the chimney from back in the day. You can even sometimes see them on the outside of the house.
Looks like a liner has been droped in more recently though, the original chimney wouldn't have had one of those obvs.
depending where you are scaffolding is about a grand
Mate had a simple tower up just to drop a flue liner in and that cost £1k - so probs a bit more to go over the roof and around the chimney.
I've just had scaff all around the house for £4k but that was mates rates and should have been £6k.
OP, I supply an app to a number of scaffolding companies and can maybe recommend someone near you.
OP, I supply an app to a number of scaffolding companies and can maybe recommend someone near you.
Is it a cocaine hook up app?
Southampton.
Tbh the whole exterior needs sorting too, soffits, guttering, its on its original 100 year old roof to (which touch wood) is still fine
I have good and bad news:
There is steelwork, one RSJ picking up the wall that was removed, and it looks like they bolted 2 small steels to pick up the chimney leafs the one side I have access to is 40cm long. but, its not supported at one end, and has dropped about 5mm - that would explain the cracking in the chimney above it. There is no evidence of any support or fixing on the end of the stubby bit so I assume its as designed. The outer leaf is on a wooden joist. I would have expected the steel to be fixed to joist or something else at the end not just left even if its short
No evidence the movement is recent, and given the evidence was the plaster had been repaired several times above the chimney I reckon it was settlement relatively soon after the lower stack was removed.
Needs to come out soon though.
Should have just painted over the wall paper
*looks like the block work to the side of the chimney was built to hide the flue as it comes from the corner of the room across to the stack. why its built out of solid brick I don't know if it was just built to hide the flue bend
Is it a cocaine hook up app?
I wish it was.... it would be an easier sell!
[maybe I could integrate that as an additional upgrade?]
Tbh the whole exterior needs sorting too, soffits, guttering
Best do everything at once - the scaffolding is a major part of the cost - you don't really want to put it up twice.
I reckon it was settlement relatively soon after the lower stack was removed.
Makes absolute sense.
Should have just painted over the wall paper
Well, durr!
why its built out of solid brick I don’t know if it was just built to hide the flue bend
Because it's single skin flue and will get hot, a wooden enclosure would be a bad idea and against building regs.
I'm intrigued, how did you get on?
Not too bad, went the plasterboard route. The plastering is ok from a distance, filler can be seen if you look close, but to be honest its in a better state than the rest of the room. I kind of like the slightly battered look - soon as something is perfect it makes everything else look rubbish.
One extra fun thing is that the essential central support part of that ikea bed is not included, i mean wtf, which lead to a panic drive to ikea and picking it up on the day guests were turning up.
It was a bit like one of those interior design tv programmes against the clock....back to work now for a rest
You made a nice job of that. It's always good to feel your guests have somewhere comfortable.
I too was working to the last minute getting both a bathroom and spare bedrooms ready. Moving sockets so they had USB ports and lamps next to the bed was the final touch.
Its good to have a deadline, it means you get on with it. My stairs are still in the undercoat I did about 8 years ago (!)
with more time I would have moved the sockets, and the woodwork ideally needed more than one coat, also would have taken the rad off and removed the paper from behind it / painted properly. But had to prioritise!
Quite surprised my wife has yet to suggest getting on with the hallway now I have all the brushes to hand! There was mention of the floor needing doing during NYE but I'll pretend I'd had too much to drink and hadn't heard 🙂
Brilliant job, well done!
cheers, amazing what a bit of paint can do 🙂
Nice job {thumbs up}