C17th hearths...

[xanthe]

Looking for some advice on C17th hearths.

Our inglenook sits just outside the footprint of the oldest part of the house - was tacked onto the back of the right-hand bay. Current floor is brick, with most modern frogged red ones and a few old handmade bricks. Many are broken and it's set in a vague bonded pattern. In the centre is an area of bitumen DPM with poured concrete.

There was once a gas fire, currently a woodburner (installed in 2011) and I don't think there has been an open fire since the 70's. In the middle of the hearth is a grill leading to a pipe that goes down through the earth floor and several sandstone blocks and then opens into a big pipe in the cellar wall. :evil:

The floor of the hearth is just below the level of the floorboards in the rest of the room (C19th pitch pine probably) and the edge is cracked and poor quality concrete.

CO has given permission to scrap all the bricks, remove the DPM and cement and fix things. He suggests butting the bricks up against each other and sitting them in NHL rather than just onto earth, but is pretty much leaving it up to me as to what I do.

Are there good sources for details of heaths of this age? My parents have a big "hearth stone" and I'm wondering if I should get one of those but I don't know what it's even made of. :roll:

Given I've been given carte blanche to renovate, I want to do a nice and appropriate renovation,

 

[livias]

I have an inglenook with at least three generations of soft red bricks in a vague bonded pattern

 

[Lime]

I haven't a C17th hearth.

However the bricks will be easier to lay if you use lime mortar than on plain earth assuming you are a novice in this matter.
Ordinary lime mortar will be fine. The bricks need to be able to move rather than be glued together.
Make sure you firm up the earth by pummelling with a hammer or other tool to make it firm before laying the lime and bricks.
Remember part of the charm is that nothing is quite flat or quite level.

Try and make the best of what you have re. the pipe. It is there, it will reduce draughts in the room when you have a fire and it ventilates the cellar at the same time.
Its intrusion into the hearth will set the level of the hearth unless you are able to improve/alter the end of the pipe.

As with any "big job" break it up into small areas of work so that it remains do-able.
Give yourself enough time to make mistakes and experiment. Don't rush it.
Make sure you have enough bricks so that you can spoil some with different methods, styles and ideas and not have to worry about materials.

 

[Andys]

In the absence of any historical clues, the previous owners having enthusiastically dug out and concreted the floor, we got rid of the concrete slab crazy-paving affair and did this. The bricks were from a stack of reclaimed ones we found in the garden, bedded and pointed in lime putty mortar with the bed thickness and pointing gap adjusted to make sure all the dimensions worked out nicely.

 

[Andys]

...and another thing, dunno if it's at all helpful ( and, importantly, not the right century) but the early 1700's Tindalls cottage at the Weald and Downland museum near Goodwood has an interesting fireplace and an unpointed brick floor ( there must be a proper name but I can't think of it) which extends into the hearth . It's been reconstructed by historical conservationists so may have some useful reference features.

This is a picture from their website, actually http://www.wealddown.co.uk/courses/georgian-farmhouse-day-tindalls-cottage/

The rest of the museum buildings are interesting too if it isn't a major trek...

 

[xanthe]

Andy - nice job on the floor - it looks lovely.

Pendean Farmhouse at the Weald & Downland is very similar to this house. Only real difference it that it is a lobby house with the back to back fireplaces, whereas when the decided to add one here, they stuck it on the back rather than in the middle. The plaster chap who came to look round before we bought was from Singleton and recommended by the Museum. He kept saying how he was walking round Pendean II - he was also the one who told me to learn to do lime myself (husband most displeased!)

I was looking at the Pendean fireplaces yesterday but hadn't thought about the others. I have a gazillion photos as we were planning to install sliding wooden shutters here - very little insulation so we expected the house to be very cold. For some reason it's actually a warm house so we're leaving the curtains. Hopefully I did floors as well!

Lime - total novice! Only points in my favour are being good with my hands, infinitely patient and having worked on a lot of archaeological digs! With the bricks I've removed (about 1/4 of the hearth), I removed all the loose stuff and took it down to the hard earth floor - about 1.5 inches below the bricks. I could dig deeper, but I don't want to disturb the earth if it's deep enough. I think setting in lime would be wise and the CO seemed to think that was a good plan.

I don't want things fake wonky in the way that the POs did - adding chunks of cement to create bumps etc, so I was thinking of trying to make things level which should result in a decent amount of wonkiness!

The pipe I have two options - retain it and the stupid grill thing, or just brick it over. We don't lack for ventilation in this house - sitting-room floorboards are the cellar ceiling. You can actually pass things like screwdrivers down through the floor in places! It's a complete sieve. We don't plan to seal anything - the cellar needs masses of ventilation to keep it dry at the moment (needs a lot of attention down there) - so keeping the vent or not is really down to how vital it might be. I suppose I could always leave it in a way where it could be reinstated very easiy if we decide to cover it...

Livias - but are your bricks pointed with cat shit/sick, and sealed with wee? :lol: I'm going to salvage (and soak/scrub) all the old bricks I can. Not sure I want to expend the energy on the frogged 70's ones! CO has suggested I visit Lambs for bricks - they also happen to have the only Wealden Sandstone quarry, which is what our cellar is made of, so I probably should take a look at them.

For an inside room, would you buy new bricks or look at reclaimed?