I'm removing all the old paint from our inglenook fireplace at the moment.
Everything has about 7 coats of gloss paint in cream and white. Underneath is bright red paint and in some places plain paper beneath the red. There are loads of chunks of odd shaped cement slapped on so those are coming off/out.
It looks as if the alcoves are lime-plastered - I'm retaining what is there, but where it's missing the brickwork is definitely not good enough to have ever been on show.
The little window which is where I imagine the bread oven was also needs lime-plaster looking at the brickwork.
The rest of the bricks are just black with soot. The gloss paint is coming off like a dream - just peels - the red is a bit trickier. Should I just give them a good brush down and leave them like that or should they be properly cleaned? Is it just personal taste?
The front of the fireplace - jambs and above the bressummer - is bare brick but was certainly lime washed at some stage. The lime mortar is still there and I have managed to remove all the cement pointing without damaging a single brick (looks a million times better). However, all the bricks on the jambs have traces of paint, lime wash and so on.
It doesn't wash off so I've been using a tiny chisel and a dry toothbrush to remove the biggest chunks.
Then I stopped and wondered just how much they should be cleaned? Should I just remove the larger bits of crud and leave the rest or should they be stripped back to the brick faces?
Part of me thinks that they look fine as it is and while I'll removed all the gloss, having small traces of the red and of the limewash perhaps ticks the whole 'historic journey' box.
The inglenook is HUGE - nearly 9ft wide inside and 6.5ft between the jambs, so there are a LOT of bricks.
Here's a picture that shows the bricks on the left jamb. The dark pointing is now all gone, but brick faces are as seen here.
Everything has about 7 coats of gloss paint in cream and white. Underneath is bright red paint and in some places plain paper beneath the red. There are loads of chunks of odd shaped cement slapped on so those are coming off/out.
It looks as if the alcoves are lime-plastered - I'm retaining what is there, but where it's missing the brickwork is definitely not good enough to have ever been on show.
The little window which is where I imagine the bread oven was also needs lime-plaster looking at the brickwork.
The rest of the bricks are just black with soot. The gloss paint is coming off like a dream - just peels - the red is a bit trickier. Should I just give them a good brush down and leave them like that or should they be properly cleaned? Is it just personal taste?
The front of the fireplace - jambs and above the bressummer - is bare brick but was certainly lime washed at some stage. The lime mortar is still there and I have managed to remove all the cement pointing without damaging a single brick (looks a million times better). However, all the bricks on the jambs have traces of paint, lime wash and so on.
It doesn't wash off so I've been using a tiny chisel and a dry toothbrush to remove the biggest chunks.
Then I stopped and wondered just how much they should be cleaned? Should I just remove the larger bits of crud and leave the rest or should they be stripped back to the brick faces?
Part of me thinks that they look fine as it is and while I'll removed all the gloss, having small traces of the red and of the limewash perhaps ticks the whole 'historic journey' box.
The inglenook is HUGE - nearly 9ft wide inside and 6.5ft between the jambs, so there are a LOT of bricks.
Here's a picture that shows the bricks on the left jamb. The dark pointing is now all gone, but brick faces are as seen here.
