- Thread starter TheSpid
- Start date
Mickey said:
One of the first things he'll find is that those floppy one-piece plastic bucket-things don't last 5 minutes these days. They're the building site equivalent of the one use plastic carrier bag.
But seriously, yes, it's always nice to see nasty 70s "modernisation" removed.
Oh good decision...! Even if it is the worst time of year, and ironically I've found myself doing more fireplace work now, just as the natural light vanishes!!! Which I swore I wouldn't do again 
Interested to follow progress. Please post pics as you go!
Interested to follow progress. Please post pics as you go!
this was up to three quarters of the way through the day - then the light for photos along with the dust/soot on the room made it hard to take pics. A few interesting features - mummified birds and a mouse - as well as possible salt stores found. Will go take more pics in a bit. Work stoped yesterday and today is a clearing up day. Didn't know what we would find behind so didn't have a plan as to what to do next really. And the yellow buckets lasted the day.
It's amazing how quickly it looks a thousand times better!!
Sacrilege indeed, but at least the stones have been protected which is a small silver lining. Our 400 year inglenook breast had been protected by centuries of thick limewash from the hideous concrete and gypsum on top, which meant it just fell off in huge sheets.
Then again, we have very early Georgian brick walls where the lime has been stripped off and concrete render applied directly onto the bricks which is irreversible
Sacrilege indeed, but at least the stones have been protected which is a small silver lining. Our 400 year inglenook breast had been protected by centuries of thick limewash from the hideous concrete and gypsum on top, which meant it just fell off in huge sheets.
Then again, we have very early Georgian brick walls where the lime has been stripped off and concrete render applied directly onto the bricks which is irreversible
Kearn said:It's amazing how quickly it looks a thousand times better!!
Sacrilege indeed, but at least the stones have been protected which is a small silver lining. Our 400 year inglenook breast had been protected by centuries of thick limewash from the hideous concrete and gypsum on top, which meant it just fell off in huge sheets.
Then again, we have very early Georgian brick walls where the lime has been stripped off and concrete render applied directly onto the bricks which is irreversible
I didn't think of that - small mercies then that they couldn't be bothered to strip off the lime first. Sad about your bricks though.
Well it's been a bit of a journey - where there was lime underneath the render and plaster came off really easily - in some other places there was no lime underneath and boy was that a struggle to get off. We were also doing it all by hand at this point. Hubby has now bought a mini breaker and the last bit that we had been bashing away at and getting nowhere for around 12 hours came off in 10 mins. So we are now at the all plaster taken off to the edges stage and needed to clean and take out the mortar ready for repointing in lime. Some areas are a tad 'dodgy' and I'm waiting for the builder who is coming to stabilise the stack to look at it before I go any further in those areas. The size of some of the stones is amazing.
Then this morning I had a go at some old incongruous bricks that were sitting on a ledge, we had decided we would use the ledge as an alcove so I wobbled the bricks to see whether they would come out easily and discovered this. What a find.
Then this morning I had a go at some old incongruous bricks that were sitting on a ledge, we had decided we would use the ledge as an alcove so I wobbled the bricks to see whether they would come out easily and discovered this. What a find.
TheSpid said:
I picked up an air powered hammer & chisel set from the local Lidl a while back. A very hand tool for nibbling away at the hard stuff. Not quite as aggressive and boisterous as a breaker. Perfect for fine detail though.
Oh, and the space looks a lot better now that the old fireplace has been removed. Looks like you've gained about another foot of floor space in that area to boot.
paulc said:
On the lowest setting it is very gentle, hubby a wanted a breaker as there is concrete to remove from a gate post and the ground it is in that needs replacing. I'm sure on the highest setting it would have that whole chimney down in no time. He is under strict instructions to go carefully. But is he saves us a couple of days in the long run all will be good.
The false wall coming down etc has given us an extra 15-18 inches or so, it looks more when in the room as the stone hood stuck out a very long way really too. We are really chuffed with it. though will be living with the mess through Xmas now - there is a bit of safety building work to be done, and a register plate to put in, and the rest of that brick to come out {whilst jacking up the chimney section] and the stone rebuilt in that bit that we aren't qualified to do and our builder is very busy. We are late to the renovating game and our experience is very limited. Demolition is what we are good at at the moment. Going to be learning lime pointing and plastering and putting in a limecrete floor though.