Hello
We have just opened up our fireplace ahead of getting a multi fuel stove fitted. We are now faced with a face of old crumbly, sooty stone, a concrete lintel and what is left of a cement surround. We have not removed the entire cement surround as we are concerned about the stability of the stone underneath as this is obviously holding up the concrete lintel.
The questions I have are:
What do I do now? Render it? If we were to render it then is it ok to render and patch up the already cemented sides? Once we have cleaned up the stone do we need to apply a coat of PVA? How wet do we need to get the stone before applying a coat of render? (External rendering suggest wetting with a hose but as this is internal crumbly old stone then is just damping it down Ok?)
What about using cement board? Would this just be a lot easier? As it is an old cottage my feeling that the square, clean finish that you get with cement board might not be suited to the style of the property.
Concrete lintel. This is currently covered with a layer of cement. Is it possible to disguise the lintel with a lovely bit of wood? Just trying to consider all possibilities.
As you may have guessed we are complete novices so any advice welcome. I have spent quite a lot of time reading some of the other posts on here but still feel that all my questions have not been answered. See photos below. Not sure why they are upside down.
We have just opened up our fireplace ahead of getting a multi fuel stove fitted. We are now faced with a face of old crumbly, sooty stone, a concrete lintel and what is left of a cement surround. We have not removed the entire cement surround as we are concerned about the stability of the stone underneath as this is obviously holding up the concrete lintel.
The questions I have are:
What do I do now? Render it? If we were to render it then is it ok to render and patch up the already cemented sides? Once we have cleaned up the stone do we need to apply a coat of PVA? How wet do we need to get the stone before applying a coat of render? (External rendering suggest wetting with a hose but as this is internal crumbly old stone then is just damping it down Ok?)
What about using cement board? Would this just be a lot easier? As it is an old cottage my feeling that the square, clean finish that you get with cement board might not be suited to the style of the property.
Concrete lintel. This is currently covered with a layer of cement. Is it possible to disguise the lintel with a lovely bit of wood? Just trying to consider all possibilities.
As you may have guessed we are complete novices so any advice welcome. I have spent quite a lot of time reading some of the other posts on here but still feel that all my questions have not been answered. See photos below. Not sure why they are upside down.
