CheshireCat
Member
- Messages
- 6
- Location
- London
A second post from me - this time focused on the living room.
First up... the fireplace base
The base is very crumbly mix of little pebble bits and cement. Every time I sweep or hoover dust from it, more of the base comes away, particularly at the front.
We don't plan to use this as a working fireplace due to a combo of air pollution, small room size and tv height concerns. Instead, we'll be getting a chimney sweep to inspect it and make sure the chimney and pot above is sound / weather proofed but ventilated. We plan to box in the top half of the opening (sturdily enough to support our tv) - but leave the bottom half open to maximise storage space within the cabinet. The walls will all be lime plastered.
I wasn't sure if we should make the fireplace base good first - maybe use some self-levelling compound, if thats the right stuff... stretching my knowledge to its limits here. My husband thinks we could leave the base as is - and build the interior of the cabinet around it. Which at this point is very tempting, but I want to make sure we are doing the right thing.
Next up... the bay window
When the previous owner had double glazing installed, the fitters put 2 wide pieces of plastic trim around all the windows. In this room, it meant they cut into and damaged the original coving, and the plastic window cill felt ridiculously wide for the window itself. We wanted to use this opportunity to remedy it and so removed both the trim and cill. However, this has revealed a ton of expanding foam (which my husband has cut back a bit) packed out with random bits of plastic and wood. So left wondering how best to 'make good'.
We were thinking to leave the foam in place... maybe fill in with foam where there are some gaps. I've found mixed answers about whether you can plaster directly over foam, which has left me skeptical that its possible to do - but if anyone was experience of this working, please share! Will always welcome an easy option that works.
Husband suggested normal plasterboard, but wasn't sure whether that was right approach with this being external brick wall. The plaster around it appears to be original lime with a skim of gypsum. No damp issues on this wall (it has a french drain outside, and we've replaced the guttering etc).
We considered possibly using something like wood wool boards instead as they would still be breathable and we could get it lime plastered or use something like breathaplasta if we wanted to attempt ourselves. But then how best to fix any type of board in place? Do we need to make a wooden frame for boards to attach to? And does it matter about being breathable if rest of wall is skimmed with gypsum?
Eventually, we hope to install wooden architrave and window cill, and replace the coving with as close a match to the original we can possibly find.
Would welcome any thoughts on how best to fill in these huge gaps around our windows!
First up... the fireplace base
The base is very crumbly mix of little pebble bits and cement. Every time I sweep or hoover dust from it, more of the base comes away, particularly at the front.
We don't plan to use this as a working fireplace due to a combo of air pollution, small room size and tv height concerns. Instead, we'll be getting a chimney sweep to inspect it and make sure the chimney and pot above is sound / weather proofed but ventilated. We plan to box in the top half of the opening (sturdily enough to support our tv) - but leave the bottom half open to maximise storage space within the cabinet. The walls will all be lime plastered.
I wasn't sure if we should make the fireplace base good first - maybe use some self-levelling compound, if thats the right stuff... stretching my knowledge to its limits here. My husband thinks we could leave the base as is - and build the interior of the cabinet around it. Which at this point is very tempting, but I want to make sure we are doing the right thing.
Next up... the bay window
When the previous owner had double glazing installed, the fitters put 2 wide pieces of plastic trim around all the windows. In this room, it meant they cut into and damaged the original coving, and the plastic window cill felt ridiculously wide for the window itself. We wanted to use this opportunity to remedy it and so removed both the trim and cill. However, this has revealed a ton of expanding foam (which my husband has cut back a bit) packed out with random bits of plastic and wood. So left wondering how best to 'make good'.
We were thinking to leave the foam in place... maybe fill in with foam where there are some gaps. I've found mixed answers about whether you can plaster directly over foam, which has left me skeptical that its possible to do - but if anyone was experience of this working, please share! Will always welcome an easy option that works.
Husband suggested normal plasterboard, but wasn't sure whether that was right approach with this being external brick wall. The plaster around it appears to be original lime with a skim of gypsum. No damp issues on this wall (it has a french drain outside, and we've replaced the guttering etc).
We considered possibly using something like wood wool boards instead as they would still be breathable and we could get it lime plastered or use something like breathaplasta if we wanted to attempt ourselves. But then how best to fix any type of board in place? Do we need to make a wooden frame for boards to attach to? And does it matter about being breathable if rest of wall is skimmed with gypsum?
Eventually, we hope to install wooden architrave and window cill, and replace the coving with as close a match to the original we can possibly find.
Would welcome any thoughts on how best to fill in these huge gaps around our windows!