renovating Victorian fireplace

[diane]

Hi there
I've just uncovered a cast iron late Victorian fireplace in my bedroom. The outside part is covered in thick gloss paint but there is a nice and intricate design including a small centre piece of a bird. The tiles on either side are covered in dark red emulsion paint and the grate part appears intact except that at the back and sides there is what appears to be some sort of crumbling brick type substance which looks like it was randomly packed into openings or mouldings of the iron work. What is the best way of removing a) the gloss paint, b) the emulsion off the tiles, and c) what on earth is the bricked in stuff and should I remove it? I thought the crumbling brick stuff could be removed to reveal a metal back to the fire but it looks like there is nothing but an open space behind it - is that normal?
Thanks!!

 

[tipperl]

Diane,
Congrats on your find! It's shocking though, the things people have done to lovely period features. I would think the best way to remove the paint, from both the cast iron and the tiles, is a chemical stripper. Nitromors would work fine on the cast iron but not sure how safe it is on glazed tiles. You might check out the Klingstrip site (just google it), they have a 'I want to remove paint from....' page that will lead you to finding the right product for your surface. And you can get trial packs too so you can do a test area first. I've used their products before and they work well. Being thicker than nitromors it also won't slide off a vertical surface.
As for the stuff behind the fire, it's hard to say without seeing it but could it just be fill that was put behind the fireplace? It's standard practice to fill the cavity behind a fireplace with rubble/cement. Perhaps what you have is something of this sort that has deteriorated over the years?
Does anybody else have any other thoughts?
Best of luck - be sure to take before and after pics, it's always fun to see the transformation!
~L.

 

[Pford75]

I second the Klingstrip suggestion. It works very well on vertical surfaces, isn't half as messy/nasty as Nitromors and does a good job. We have used it on both cast iron and tiles.

Can you post a photo of the bricks? Could be a more recent fire back (not sure if they were made of pumice or cement/conrete). Alternatively (difficult to tell from your description), it could be that someone has tried repairs to damage in the fireplace with fire cement.

 

[diane]

Hi there
thanks for your comments! I've added a couple of pictures so you can see what it is that I'm talking about

 

[tipperl]

Aha! What you have there is a broken firebrick. Given the amount of breakage I think you need to remove it fully, back to the cast iron behind it and then find a replacement. I have googled 'replacement firebrick' and there are some out there you can buy but they are square/rectangular and don't look like they would fit well in your fireplace (same shape as ours). I did see something called Vitcas Mouldable firebrick (for only about £12) which you can use to mould a new firebrick into the right shape. I have no idea how easy that is to do nor do I know anything about the product other than what I just read online but it does appear to be the right kind of thing and may be a lot easier (and cheaper) than finding a replacement firebrick to fit snugly in your fireplace. Let us know what you end up doing. Good luck!

 

[diane]

Hi, thanks for that. It doesnt appear that there is any back at all behind the broken firebrick unless its a really long way back?! We inserted a long thin screwdriver into the broken firebrick and it certainly went in all the way - about 8 inches at least, I would think. Would that mean there is nothing but an open cavity behind the firebrick? Beginning to wish I'd never started this !!