thursdaycat
Member
- Messages
- 15
Hello
I posted here last year when I was decorating my son's bedroom in my 400 year old stone farmhouse. After that epic. I've eventually summoned up courage to have a go at my bedroom and yet again find I need help.. Please forgive the length of this..
I have 2 issues:
- I have significant damp in one wall. I knew this as it had come though the wallpaper but when I took the paper off it was much more extensive than I had thought. I have had 4 builders round to advise, each of whom has said something different. I have looked up opinions on Vandex elsewhere on the forum so won't go into that again but another suggestion has been to coat the outside wall with a silicone product to seal the stones which may be porous. Does anyone have any advice on this measure, whcih I understand would have to be repated every 2-3 years.
- I might have a fireplace in this room too. There is a chimney breast in the centre of one wall with an air vent in the middle, there are 2 chimney pots on the roof and the downstairs flue goes off to the right of the chimney so I think it's likely we have a fireplace upstairs with a left-sided flue. If I take the air vent off I can see a cavity behind and to the left, though am not sure how big it is.
Taking the paper off the wall revealed a possible shape on the left-hand side of the chimney breast. It is nearly 1 meter wide but in terms of height there is something odd - at 117cm high, there begins a hollow sound when I tap the wall, which extends a further 10cm up the wall. You could think this was blown plaster but it's in a straight line all the way across the 1m width. Underneath the 117cm mark, I have scraped off some plaster to reveal some sort of dark stone or brick underneath and above the mark there is just what looks like white polyfilla! It look like something has been blocked up to 117cm tall. Two questions: Firstly, doesn't this seem high for a bedrrom fireplace - wouldn't it likely have been a small black bedroom thing? Secondly, what do you think about off-centre fireplaces in a chimney breast wall anyway? Even if we uncover a hole into which we can install a nice fireplace grate, will it just look too odd? Has anyone on the forum done this in their home??
Again, apologies for the length of this but I'd really appreciate any advice.
Thanks a lot
Caroline
I posted here last year when I was decorating my son's bedroom in my 400 year old stone farmhouse. After that epic. I've eventually summoned up courage to have a go at my bedroom and yet again find I need help.. Please forgive the length of this..
I have 2 issues:
- I have significant damp in one wall. I knew this as it had come though the wallpaper but when I took the paper off it was much more extensive than I had thought. I have had 4 builders round to advise, each of whom has said something different. I have looked up opinions on Vandex elsewhere on the forum so won't go into that again but another suggestion has been to coat the outside wall with a silicone product to seal the stones which may be porous. Does anyone have any advice on this measure, whcih I understand would have to be repated every 2-3 years.
- I might have a fireplace in this room too. There is a chimney breast in the centre of one wall with an air vent in the middle, there are 2 chimney pots on the roof and the downstairs flue goes off to the right of the chimney so I think it's likely we have a fireplace upstairs with a left-sided flue. If I take the air vent off I can see a cavity behind and to the left, though am not sure how big it is.
Taking the paper off the wall revealed a possible shape on the left-hand side of the chimney breast. It is nearly 1 meter wide but in terms of height there is something odd - at 117cm high, there begins a hollow sound when I tap the wall, which extends a further 10cm up the wall. You could think this was blown plaster but it's in a straight line all the way across the 1m width. Underneath the 117cm mark, I have scraped off some plaster to reveal some sort of dark stone or brick underneath and above the mark there is just what looks like white polyfilla! It look like something has been blocked up to 117cm tall. Two questions: Firstly, doesn't this seem high for a bedrrom fireplace - wouldn't it likely have been a small black bedroom thing? Secondly, what do you think about off-centre fireplaces in a chimney breast wall anyway? Even if we uncover a hole into which we can install a nice fireplace grate, will it just look too odd? Has anyone on the forum done this in their home??
Again, apologies for the length of this but I'd really appreciate any advice.
Thanks a lot
Caroline