Day 827: Plugging a gap

The front room was starting to look half decent. The only problem was the gap in the middle of it. Cold air was getting in and it looked pretty unsightly. We needed to find something to fill the space.

Luckily the guys at Galleon Fireplaces had the perfect solution. Plug the gap with a new log burning stove. We went with a 5kw version made by Capital Fireplaces - mostly because anything bigger and we'd be able to start drying clay pottery in there. Nope, it was just the aesthetics of having something intentionally burning in the room and maybe a little extra coziness on winter nights.

We knew the chimney worked as there was a gas stove in there when we first moved in. We had the chimney swept and inspected first before confirming this particular job - required by code.

Also, the chimney needed to be lined so that the fire is what's putting the grin on our face - not the carbon monoxide leaking out into the house. The guys spent a lot more time than expected running the pipe down the chimney. I did confirm with them that this was both approved for woodstoves and convenient passage of jolly old men. They also needed to put a new cap on top of the chimney suitable for wood burners. And of course, it being London and us needing to do work outside, it rained ....

Next once the liner was installed, next came the register plate which is just the metal bit that goes on the top and connects in with the pipe.

The guys also worked on the hearth which is honed black granite. Black granite was chosen vs slate or limestone as it was the hardest wearing material and avoided scuffs and scratches well. With a fire and a couple of kids, felt this was a good option to go with. Also, all my hard work on getting the floor level (see here) was probably a but unnecessary - they put down new mortar under the hearth and re-leveled the entire thing. Well hopefully my work made this a little bit easier - or at least an entertaining blog entry :) 

Nice of them to put down covering so as not to wreck our "lovely" floor. They were super considerate, although in this case, anything they did to the floor would likely improve its current state.

Next came all the pretty stuff, namely the limestone surround. I think this may have been the first time that Care and I have agreed on something completely without the need for 10,000 samples first. Progress maybe? No, unfortunately the 10,000 flooring samples sitting in the room would suggest otherwise.

And that was the end of Day 1. They were doing a great job so I wasn't going to rush them. 

So Day 2, I was back at work so Care had to double as photographer. It took them a few more hours to install the rest of the surround, wood burner, insert and calking/finishing. It seemed a bit comical that we covered the original rustic bricks with faux "rustic" bricks but that is apparently what you do. Don't ask.

And there you go, the guys from Galleon standing proudly by their work. Nice job!

And the stove in action with a nice oak log. I learned by trial and error that logs are both heavy to carry home from the store and $&£@!!!! difficult to get burning. My recommendation is going for a softer wood like ash, unless you have a massive incinerator wood stove.

Now that the stove is installed, we can finish off the flooring - after of course deciding which of the 10,000 shades of wood we prefer. Arrgh!

Well at least the unsightly gap in the wall is now plugged with something a bit more pleasant to the eye (and warm on the toes),

Always good to have some before / after pictures to show progress. Technically this is a during / during picture, but you get the idea. Whenever we finish, we'll do a proper before/during/after comparison - but that is still a long, long way away.

Day 823: Pour some concrete on me

This fireplace 'aint fit, Scott, c'mon get on it
Lookin' busted up just like it was blitzed 
Lookin' like a mess, like a dog's breakfast
Demolitions done man, time to invest

Razzle 'n' a dazzle 'n' a flash a little light
Put it back together, Scott, make it right
Sometime, anytime, make it nice and neat
This little fireplace needs some concrete

So c'mon, take a bag, open it up
Add some water, mix it up

Pour some concrete on it
Ooh, 'cause it's way too rough
Pour some concrete on it
C'mon, get it level and stuff
Pour your concrete on it
Just can't get enough...

We're getting a wood-burning stove installed. Mostly for aesthetics but it will add a bit of warmth to the house too. Everything is ready to go. Chimney is swept and inspected and all good. The only thing remaining is the lousy base. It's rough and crumbling and probably not a good starting place to rest the stove hearth on. So on comes the concrete.

Now the question is, how much (in kg) would you guess this requires?

The first step is to add some SBR to make the cement stick to the substrate and not have all the moisture sucked away before it dries. I'm sure this is factually incorrect - but it seems that you use PVA for plaster and SBR for cement for roughly the same reasons. 

Then on went the cement. This is the ScrewFix "No Nonsense" brand which I've had luck with on other products so worth a try. 

It went on fine, just not as much coverage as I expected. I ended up putting 15 kg of the stuff on and still had a lot of filling to go. As the result was also not as flat as I'd expected it to be, I thought I'd give floor leveller a try. This is the U-Can brand from B&Q. Floor leveller goes on like a thick custard and uses gravity to flatten and make it level.

Rather than provide you with a lousy how-to, please check out the video here. So inspired by the hairdresser, off I went to level the recess. Yes U-Can!

And there you go, a level floor. I should mention that the first time I poured, I discovered that there wasn't a good seal in one of the corners and the custard like mixture leaked away on one side. The first result was actually less level then when I started. The second attempt worked as expected however.

So total pouring to get this thing filled

15 kg of concrete

15 kg of leveller

30kg. 

No wonder my back hurts. But at least this thing is proper solid now. On with the stove which, as I type, is getting installed .. stay tuned.

Day 627: Opening things up a bit

So underneath the lousy wallpaper was a lousy plastering job .. it wasn't even flush. But what was it covering? Would I find some lovely original tiled Victorian fireplace insert underneath possibly? On the bright side, the fireplace was in use with an old, now removed gas burner. This means that we could replace it with a working fireplace .. only a nice one this time.

With the metal grate removed, I did find a Victorian insert. I could use many words to describe it, but lovely wouln't be one of them. The original large fireplace had been fairly clumsily bricked up and a cracked insert was placed there surrounded by building waste. Not ideal.

For those interested, more on the history of fireplaces can be found here 

As I removed the insert, more rubble began falling through. As if it was mocking me, lovely Victorian tile fragments came falling down. Did somebody really smash away those nice tiles to put in this ugly insert? We will never know.

Anyway, there was a whole lot of material coming out of this thing. Good thing we have a skip on the way soon.

 

And back to the original opening. You can see the small arch created by height-wise bricks that supported the opening. This was held in place by a metal bar running underneath the arch. We were tempted to work with the exposed brick, but have decided to just plaster over the whole thing and install a nice mantel/fireplace surround. 

The question we are pondering now is whether to put in a non-functional Victorian insert or go with a log burning stove. Either would be a huge improvement over what was there before.