Treating bricks on chimney breast

[Anonymous]

Hi

I wonder if anyone can offer any advice.

We are renovating our 19th c cottage (no date on deeds). Since all the old plaster has been removed from two of the downstairs chimney breasts, and previously boarded up fireplaces revealed, we have decided we would like to keep them unplastered with the bricks exposed.

Can anyone recommend a product to "seal" the bricks? Some of the lime mortar is falling out, and also if you lean up against or touch the chimney breast you get a lot of residue on your hands/clothes!

It would need to be clear as we want to be able to see the bricks in their original colouring. However, there has been a damp problem in the past up to about a foot in height so some of these lower bricks are pretty crumbly.

I should add that we are definitely not going to be lighting any fires, so that isn't an issue.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm afraid that anything you put on the bricks to stabilise the surface isn't going to help the damp situation. I suggest you browse through some of the v. informative 'damp' threads here, address the cause of the damp (if, indeed, there is a damp problem), and then resign yourself to having a plastered wall. Using lime plaster, of course. Gypsum ain't very kind to old houses.

 

[Anonymous]

brush/wash off the worst of the dust and paint with raw linseed oil.