what to do with the hearth

[arl]

Hi,
Finally got rid of the vile green carpet in the bedroom and have discovered a pretty decent pine floor underneath (actually in such good nick it looks like it must have been covered in carpet its whole life). Think it will just need a good clean and possibly a light sanding to prevent splinters. However not sure what to do about the hearth. Its a small cement like slab which is badly chipped and cracked. The fireplace is long since gone. my options seem to be

remove hearth and find replacement floor boards (will mean removing skirting, damaging wall paper/plaster) which seems a shame when the existing floor boards are so good.

tile on top of the old hearth which will probablly look odd without a fireplace

or tile hearth and find and fit replacement fire place - too much effort for a spare bedroom?

or refit vile green carpet and put my feet up for a bit?

its a victorian terrace and i imagine it must be a common problem. i would love to know what other people have done in this situation.

thanks

 

[Penners]

In our last house we had a redundant hearth in one of the bedrooms floors. We wanted the floor fully carpeted, so we simply had the underlay and carpet run right over the hearth (which was flush with the floorboards). This worked fine.

 

[Ian Bond]

The front hearth would perhaps look odd without its fireplace - I take it the fire surround's been removed, so you just have a blank chimney breast?

If you don't want to go to the bother of opening the fireplace up, how about a simple timber surround to complement the tiled hearth? Make a feature out of it?

I would not recommend taking up an otherwise sound, old floor just to remove and board over the hearth. It is a lot of hard work and mess.

Plus, if you keep the fireproof hearth, it leaves the option open for a future restorer....

Good luck

Ian

 

[Penners]

I agree with Ian about keeping the hearth for any possible future need - by you or your successors.

 

[Craig]

If the hearth is not in good condition, its quite straightforward to replace.

I just did a marble one. Go to a fireplace shop with the mesaurements and they will probably be able to supply you with the stone to your requirements/colour. Remove the old one (just lever it up) and scrape out any loose screed. Mix up a dy mix of sharp sand and lime maybe with a small amount of cement, put it into the hole with a good rough finish and then lay the new slab down over it and tamp it down.

I had never attempted anything like it and me and my equally dim-witted brother did it in about 2 hours. Looks great.

 

[Ian Bond]

My bedrooms have sandstone hearths, and they are just layed across the joists with nothing below them.

This is an early 19th century, vernacular cottage - from what I gather improvements were introduced to make fireplaces safer (reduce risk of fire spreading from stray coals etc), in exactly the way that Craig described, i.e. a solid hearth.

How did they achieve this on suspended upper floors? There's nothing below my bedroom front hearths except the laths of the ceiling of the room below.

 

[Craig]

"Normally" (as if that means anything), the joists run in a square around the hearth, rather than athrough to the wall, at this point. Sometimes there is a brick arch (quite shallow) set into the joists at this point to take the hearth's weight.

As the lath and plaster is laid onto the underside ofthe joists, it passes straight under this "box" and/or brick arch, so unless you remove the ceiilng you wouldnt know it was there.

I have no ceiling or flor at the moment in one room so its quite interesting to check out. We have witchmarks left by the joiners from back in 1790. Cool.

 

[Ian Bond]

Thanks for the description Craig - very interesting (well it is to me).

The joists in my bedroom run at a right angle (almost) to the fireplace, and the front hearth rests on battens attached to the sides of the 2 outermost joists. The 2 inner joists are cut away at the top so the hearth sits flush with the floor surface, and these joists locate into the front of the chimney breast. Very precarious and no doubt a fire hazard!!!

Interesting to hear about the 'Witch Marks' - are they actually carpenters markings, like roman numerals, to mark joints for assembly, or are they as you describe - markings to protect the house and occupants from evil spirits?

I've seen pics of symbols drawn with candle smoke onto attic ceilings, and heard of deliberately concealed objects, such as shoes, knives, Witch bottles and dead cats.

Apparently these practices continued well into the enlightened 19th century, especially in country areas.

Great stuff!

Apart from dead mice and birds, all I've found were fag packets, match boxes, biscuit wrappers and a plastic box containing a 'wheel' of risque pics of under-dressed ladies.

 

[Craig]

That type of construction sound right though usually there was an infill section of brick or something - but I guess the slab could just be resting on a lip within the joists? Not considered best practice these days..

The marks are longish slashes cut into the joists. Am planning to take some photos thi sweekend before the floors/ceilings go back.

 

[Ian Bond]

Hope you can post some pics of these strange marks for us to have a peek at!

Cheers

Ian

 

[Craig]

Only if you post the under dressed ladies!

 

[Penners]

Ian

a plastic box containing a 'wheel' of risque pics of under-dressed ladies.

I'm trying to remember the name of a thing I had as a young teenager. It was a bit like a pair of binoculars into which you slotted a "wheel" of small transparency photographs. When you looked through the lenses you saw the pictures in 3D, and you pressed a lever to advance to the next picture.

I wish I could remember its name. Could this be what you found? Are the pictures small postage-stamp size transparancies in pairs (on opposite sides of the wheel)?

Unfortunately none of my wheels were risque pictures - just mountains, aeroplanes, boats... all that sort of dull stuff. Photos of under-dressed ladies in 3D would have earned me a fortune at school!

 

[Ian Bond]

Well it isn't in 3D, but there were 2 lenses and 2 circles of different pics.

They look to have been taken sometime in the 60s.

Of course, I only made a brief study for scientific purposes you understand!

I haven't found the stash of gold coins yet, but am still hoping...

 

[biffvernon]

My wheel disc just had pictures of our dear queen's coronation.

 

[elm]

There is an ex fireplace upstairs here, the hearth is all that remains - chunky 3'x 2' lump of slate, had not considered what might or might not (!) be supprting until following this thread .....

 

[Ian Bond]

It's interesting to see how the same problem (fitting a front hearth) has been tackled in different ways over the centuries.

The way they've done it in my house is really simple and primitive, but it worked and the house didn't burn down.

 

[Penners]

My wheel disc just had pictures of our dear queen's coronation.

Was yours a 3D job, as I described above, Biff? If so, do let me know what the damn thing was called. It's really bugging me!

 

[Penners]

Viewmaster!

That was what the thing was called!

Phew! Glad I got that off me chest!

 

[biffvernon]

There's a Viewmaster website and it even has a forum!

 

[Penners]

I suppose I should have guessed there would be. If I'm honest, I don't think I'm that obsessed, other than with remembering the name!