Repairing Holes in Chimney Breast

[danduff]

Just moved into first home which has a fireplace in the living room. Unfortunately the previous owners decided to use the chimney breast as the location to mount their LCD TV rather than using the fire. In order to do so they have drilled holes either side of the fireplace and in the middle of the chimney breast to feed a scart, tv aerial and power socket cabling through. The holes go right through and have not be been made with any care.

We would really like to make use of the fire again, and have got a chimney sweep to to take a look and order new grates but we need to repair the holes before it can be swept and tested. Any ideas on the best way to sort this. I am a DIY beginner.
Would expanding foam with a polyfiller finish over the top be suitable? Any advice welcome as after internet search I can only find help on chasing cables into a fireplace, and not reversing it to its former glory.

Thanks.

 

[Isleman]

How big are the holes ?
I would never use expanding foam where is high temperature.
If the holes are not too big just fill them with mortar (3 parts sand with 1 part cement )
If the holes are pretty close to the fire area than use some fire cement just to be sure .
http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-fire-cement-2kg/50751

Good luck

 

[danduff]

Added some photos of the holes to help describe the problem. The cables have all been removed now leaving just the holes to sort out.

Untitled

• danduff
• 13 Jun 2012
• 2

Untitled

• danduff
• 13 Jun 2012
• 2

Untitled

• danduff
• 13 Jun 2012
• 2

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks