Hello! Introduction...

[Alex O]

Hi all, I've been lurking a while but decided to start posting as I have some questions for you expert members!

Here's my story - my partner and I bought our first house in June. It's a brick, 3 bedroom semi in Manchester, built in 1904. I've lived in period homes all my life so couldn't contemplate anything new.

When we moved in we though we only had two original fireplaces - an enormous thing in the sitting room and a little one in the smallest bedroom - but it turned out the other two bedrooms had the fireplaces behind plywood panels. Same for the staircase - it had all been panelled in but was original underneath. An unexpected treat!

The house needs renovating from top to bottom as it's been neglected over the years. The very first thing we did when we got the keys was rip out all the filthy, damp carpets and laminate floor and haul them off to the tip. There have obviously been major damp problems in the past, which have mostly been fixed now (sadly at the expense of whatever the original hallway flooring was), though we've got one or two lingering problems which I will predictably be quizzing you all on very soon...

Am I right in thinking I have to make a few posts before I can post pics? Five is it?

 

[88v8]

Hello and welcome.
A period property with damp issues??? Nooooo, surely not.

There is a minimum for posting as attachments, but if you link to Photobucket or some other sharing site, I believe you can just copy and paste the img code.

Ivor

 

[Alex O]

Hello and welcome.
A period property with damp issues??? Nooooo, surely not.

I know, right? We're so unoriginal...

 

[JanJonWestWales]

welcome !!
you will always get good advice here, so post away...whats your priority? a particular room, a particular problem??

pics are more than welcome,especially revealed treats, like your stairs or fireplaces

 

[TheRoost]

Hi and welcome to the forum, from a fellow manchester based member

Yes let's see some pics, good or bad!

You're doing well as after 2.5 years in my place I haven't yet got around to uncovering any potential hidden fireplaces.. we have two small original bedroom ones but everywhere else has a blank plastered chimney breast.

Good luck
Andy

 

[Alex O]

I think my posts must be getting lost in some moderation delay... will post some pics as soon as I'm off the watch list! Thanks for the welcomes.

 

[Alex O]

Hi and welcome to the forum, from a fellow manchester based member

Yes let's see some pics, good or bad!

You're doing well as after 2.5 years in my place I haven't yet got around to uncovering any potential hidden fireplaces.. we have two small original bedroom ones but everywhere else has a blank plastered chimney breast.

Good luck
Andy

You're reet near us - we're in Irlams O' Th' Height in Salford.

Lovely area and some fabulous houses around - ours is one of the more modest ones but what's brilliant about it is because all the fireplaces were panelled over, they're in what I assume is they're original finish.

They're all mass produced cast iron or slate designs that have been painted to imitate mahogany. A fad at the turn of that century from what I've read. I would never finish them like that now, but we won't strip them back because I think it's a bit of social history, that. A middle class family punching above its weight! Also it's a pretty good effect...

The upstairs doors were panelled over too - we took off the panels to find that they were the original doors, which have also had the mahogany effect paint, but it's all a bit knackered so they will be refinished in satinwood paint (creamy white).

 

[88v8]

...the mahogany effect paint,

Perhaps not quite.
You may know....
In the classic staining and graining that was popular into the 1920s, the undercoat was scumble, usually a flat white.
http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/r/RATOS/
Then a stain coat was applied, and using graining combs and mops and brushes
http://www.stonehouses.co.uk/specialist-decorating/graining-tools.html
the grain effect was applied, peculiar to whatever wood was being imitated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4rW2qZ0rMQ
Also known as faux grain.

Well executed staining & graining can be very beautiful.

Not such a common skill now. But you could do it. You don't have to make it boring white.

Of course, you may be right, what you have there may just be woodstain. But you could do it again, properly.

Ivor

 

[Alex O]

It's definitely not woodstain, it's the faux grain. Looks good on the fireplaces but the doors have had so many different handles, hooks, locks, fingerplates on and off them over the years, plus the plywood panels in (presumably) the 70s that they look a right state. I like boring white

 

[JBean]

I had no idea that it was fashionable in the early part of the 20th century to stain and grain cast iron fireplaces to look like wood.

As Ivor and others may remember from another post, we have just just stripped a 1905 cast iron fireplace back to the metal. It had two layers of modern paint (white and then royal blue) but under that was wood stain - dark brown and underneath a powdery white substance that was a devil to remove. I had imagined it was a later aberration, rather than an original treatment - but the house's first owner was a tailor made good, so he may well have been trying to aspire to mahogany. We could not have preserved it, as the subsequent paint could not be removed without ruining the wood stain, but I have might have been a bit less cross while scrapping it off if I had known it was Edwardian...

It would be good to see photos of one that has been preserved in that form, once Alex is allowed to add pictures.

 

[Alex O]

Okay let's see if some of these pics work...

Here's one of the bedroom fireplaces the day we got the keys:



Here's the same fireplace about two hours later, after we'd discovered their secret:



And here's the slate sitting room fireplace - this was not panelled over, which makes it even more amazing that the wood finish is in such good condition:

 

[Alex O]

Here's that same sitting room fireplace now - we've just had a stove installed. Bit of a compromise I know, I do love an open fire, but we're in a smoke control area and it's nice to be able to have a fire without 80% of the heat disappearing up the chimney. In any case, I think it looks rather good, and we didn't have to alter any of the fireplace (except the chair bricks at the back), so it could be restored in the future. The brass fender, poker and coal scuttle were eBay finds.

We felt it was important to get a real fire in the place asap, to help get the air circulating and get the place breathing properly. It's amazing the difference that getting all the old, manky carpets out, stripping the layers of wallpaper that caked every surface and airing it all out has made. All the mustiness has gone - it was especially noticeable in the sitting room, but it feels dry now.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Really nice, both are stunning fireplaces. If only everyone who wants a stove took such and approach, it looks a wonderful way of getting the best of both worlds. I've seen the hobbit stove, is this one of them, or another make please? I look forward to seeing the rest of your progress on your house. Hopefully there will be more gems to uncover.

 

[Alex O]

Another house in the street has that same fire surround in their sitting room (though sadly the tiles have gone), except it's had a marble paint effect applied. We think our "mahogany" looks nicer though!

 

[Alex O]

Really nice, both are stunning fireplaces. If only everyone who wants a stove took such and approach, it looks a wonderful way of getting the best of both worlds. I've seen the hobbit stove, is this one of them, or another make please? I look forward to seeing the rest of your progress on your house. Hopefully there will be more gems to uncover.

We considered a Hobbit, but this is the Ekol Crystal 5. It's a 5kw and slightly larger and plainer looking than the Hobbit, which we felt was better because it doesn't pull focus from the surround and fits better in the opening - with it being such a huge surround we felt the Hobbit would have looked oddly small. It's one of the few stoves with no minimum clearance to the sides and back so you can fit them in a 16" x 22" opening.

 

[88v8]

As you say, it looks a bit odd but one could become accustomed.

The house was of good quality, from what little one can see. In addition to the aspirational fireplaces, there's the classy way the tiles are laid in the hearth with that three-sided pattern, and the generous moulded skirtings.
Scope for some jolly nice Wm Morris wallpaper, which I rather envy, as our C17 cottage with its wonkly walls is a totally wallpaperless zone.

If you were moved to experimentally restore the faux grain on one of the doors to the important rooms, say the sitting room, you would find that any imperfections/plugs of old holes, will be covered by the scumble.

Ivor

 

[Alex O]

Morris wallpaper is indeed my plan for the hallway! I would love to have wallpaper in most rooms but my partner doesn't like it so the hall and landing is our compromise - it's going to be a while before we get to that though as the hallway is where we've got the damp problem. Sigh.

Unfortunately only the upstairs doors are original, however we did manage to score a whole heap of doors from an identical house down the street. We had looked at it when it was on the market and had an offer rejected (it needed even more work than this one and didn't have any fireplaces, so we're lucky we were rejected in hindsight). We noticed a skip outside a few months ago and called in - they were ripping out every original interior door and cupboard in the place. One of the things we'd loved about that one was that it had several built in cupboards and drawers. So we bought the lot for £100. Our dining room looks like a salvage yard, what with all that, our unpacked boxes and a kitchen I just bought from eBay (that's another story!).

I've no idea how the doors from the other house were finished, but they've all been stripped back to the pine, so we'll be painting them. That gives us our downstairs doors and various cupboards - two are currently being repurposed as wardrobes in our bedroom. Will post pics when finished.

We will have several doors left over in the end though, if anyone's looking for some.

 

[Alex O]

Scope for some jolly nice Wm Morris wallpaper, which I rather envy, as our C17 cottage with its wonkly walls is a totally wallpaperless zone.

I rather envy a C17 cottage! I rented a very pretty Georgian cottage for some years in Leominster, but I've had to finally accept that I need to be in a city for my career, though I grew up in the country and am a bumpkin at heart. If I must be a city slicker til retirement* I will be one in an elegant Edwardian house!




*if my generation ever gets to retire!

 

[TheRoost]

Hi and welcome to the forum, from a fellow manchester based member

Yes let's see some pics, good or bad!

You're doing well as after 2.5 years in my place I haven't yet got around to uncovering any potential hidden fireplaces.. we have two small original bedroom ones but everywhere else has a blank plastered chimney breast.

Good luck
Andy

You're reet near us - we're in Irlams O' Th' Height in Salford.

Lovely area and some fabulous houses around - ours is one of the more modest ones but what's brilliant about it is because all the fireplaces were panelled over, they're in what I assume is they're original finish.

They're all mass produced cast iron or slate designs that have been painted to imitate mahogany. A fad at the turn of that century from what I've read. I would never finish them like that now, but we won't strip them back because I think it's a bit of social history, that. A middle class family punching above its weight! Also it's a pretty good effect...

The upstairs doors were panelled over too - we took off the panels to find that they were the original doors, which have also had the mahogany effect paint, but it's all a bit knackered so they will be refinished in satinwood paint (creamy white).

We nearly bought a house in Irlam o' Th' height 3 years ago, on one of those roads that faces the park/tennis courts, it was a small but double fronted Vic semi. Yes there's lots of nice period houses there. My sister in law lives very close by.

Fireplaces looking good... If your after off whites for your woodwork (or any other period colour) have a look at Little Greene paints, we like their oil based eggshell, far better finish than the 'diy shed' paint we used to use...made in Manchester too!

Any pics of the exterior? Back/side of the house will do if you want to remain completely anonymous

 

[mims&pip]

Hi Alex,

I somehow missed your thread previously, but have just seen it along with your before/after fireplace piccies......how fortunate to discover the bedroom fireplace lurking beneath that 'camouflage'! We were also lucky in our first house, finding a bedroom fireplace hiding behind hardboard as well as the boarded over staircase spindles and most of the original Victorian doors that had been similarly 'updated' :roll: At a more recent house we again found the original staircase had been boarded over - when the house was converted to flats - but as they had also altered the staircase layout, a large curved section of the banister was missing and we had to have this matched by a joiner at great expense when we restored it to its intended position.

Also, what luck to have been able to acquire the doors and cupboards from a neighbouring house......my best find in that vein was an Art Nouveau fingerplate on a door in a neighbour's skip, lol :lol:

Good luck with the restorations and look forward to seeing regular updates.......especially of your William Morris hallway

Mims x