Restoring iron hob grate

[irina]

Dear Forum members,

Is there a relatively inexpensive way of restoring the rusted iron bits on our hob grate? We found this in a bedroom behind some plywood boarding that someone had put up probably decades ago, and they had left no air holes, just wallpapered/plastered over. Seems that for decades each time it rained there was a puddle of water collecting on the left hand hob, so about a third of the surface has rusted away. The right hand hob is luckily still in good condition. What do you recommend for repairing/restoring the rusted hob? I say 'inexpensive' method because we have no intention of using this fireplace for heating, it will remain purely as a feature, so one option is to simply leave well alone. All I've done do far is wire-brush the worst of the rust and then put some grate polish on. Unfortunately some previous owner also hacked off whatever fire surround there was, so as to get the wall nice and flush and stop it looking like a chimneybreast at all...
Your advice much appreciated. Irina

 

[Nemesis]

Lucky though they left the grate intact - and all the parts.

I think you have done the right thing, although if the rust is really bad you might be able to get a new hob if you scour reclamation yards.


You could always fill the surfce with car body filler, paint then grate polish, but personally I'd leave it.

Ensure, as you have done, the rust is removed with a wire brush, try painting with a rust preventer, and keep giving a coat of grate black every now and again, assuming the chance of it getting damp again is minimal.

Nice grate. A simple surround now required. Thankfully when we uncovered ours the surround was/is part of the wall and in stone, so simply left, bricked up and plastered over.

 

[shelli]

I repaired a small area of our hob grate with filler, as nem suggests and painted - it looks fine but it was only a small chunk out of grate at the back of the hob, in a not very noticeable area.

I would sit a nice kettle on the affected area!

Shelli

 

[irina]

Thank you both for the advice. In the long term for the proper repair I'll try the car body filler, but I'll make sure to practice on some scrap metal first. However, I'm tempted to use Shelli's advice for the time being, and put a decorative receptacle on the affected area, which will doubly up nicely to catch the raindrops which drip down the chimney each time the weather moves in from the west. Even I realise there is little point getting the hob all nice and restored if we have water dripping on it. But with a hundred and one other jobs to do, and since it's summer (sort of) and moisture dries out rapidly, this will have to wait somewhat longer. Rest assured it's only small amounts of rain and the hob won't disintegrate overnight ...

 

[Nemesis]

We have the same prob - straight up chimney...

 

[MdB]

I would suggest not using car body filler or anything similar. If you are good at applying it, you will have a flat patch which is unlikely to meld well with the rest of plate. If you're not good at applying it, it will just look awful. Grate polish + kettle would be a good solution I think. Nice find though - only slightly jealous here...

 

[irina]

Nice find though - only slightly jealous here...

#

I'm glad to hear it, my heart beat a little faster when my OH, who had been removing the offending plywood, told me "you'll like this!" But just before you think I'm smug, let me share with you that two other chimneybreasts we opened up, both on the ground floor, had hidden behind some inter-war tiled surrounds nothing but a pile of rubble. Turned out said pile of rubble contained in one chimneybreast the sad remains of the original Georgian stone backing (not sure of technical term - the two slabs of stone that sit at back of fireplace kind of behind and on top of the hobs), and the other had the smashed fragments of the Bath stone fire surround (in what my books tell me is a Bolection style). Oh, and some rusty scissors and a key that doesn't match any lock anywhere in the house. All bits had been used by some early 20thC builders to provide a nice bit of filling material, so as to reduce the opening and enable them to fit a smaller tiled fire surround.

And while I'm on the subject, the previous owner proudly told me that back in the 1960s they had the cast iron range (probably mid-19thC and still in full working order) ripped out because "the room got too hot".

I have the funnye feeling this sort of thing is not new to any forum members out there ...

 

[Nemesis]

No, sigh... at least you have some idea of what was there and can plan accordingly if you want to replicate.

 

[Penners]

a key that doesn't match any lock anywhere in the house.

You really should qualify that statement: "a key that doesn't seem to match any lock anywhere in the house".

Just wait until you've thrown the key away... then you'll find out which lock it matches. The one on the door that suddenly won't open.