exposing plastered over fireplace
Another question here — I have a fireplace in the back of the house that was long since plastered over, and we’d like to consider exposing the brick and putting our own mantle on it. Is this as simple as it seems? I suspect I’ll need someone to do some brick work to repair the…
Another question here — I have a fireplace in the back of the house that was long since plastered over, and we’d like to consider exposing the brick and putting our own mantle on it. Is this as simple as it seems? I suspect I’ll need someone to do some brick work to repair the morter underneath. Has anyone done this? Have any idea of cost/time? It doesn’t seem too difficult, but I am not sure. Thanks in advance..
We did this not too long ago. Took us one day to get the plaster off then we used a chemical to clean off what we could of the brick. I did not repoint because I like the “worn” look of it. It did take a few coats of polyurethane to even it out. I don’t know how to post pictures otherwise I would show you a before and after. Good luck
if i understand you corrrectly, you need to chip off the plaster on the surface of the brick, repoint it with new cement, clean it, and install a mantle ? if so, SD Construction could help you with this job – 9174957120. its not as simple as it seems.
A lot of these were plastered over when townhouses were broken up into apartments and central heating installed. No landlord wants to pay to send heat up a chimney, and an open fire in an apartment is not something a lot of landlords want to encourage.
I would go through your Department of Buildings file before opening up the fireplace, just to make sure there are no permitting issues.
Funny, I am hoping to do the same thing. One thing you might find out, is WHY the brick was plastered over in the first place. Also, structural brick may not be the quality brick you are hoping for.
Having said that, I hope it works and would love to know how it turned out…