Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Sep 01, 2012 9:24 pm Good evening... We have a currently un-working fireplace in our front living room that the previous owners 'moderinised' by putting a type of rendered plaster board (??) over whatever may 'lie beneath'. They also put some floor tiles and a timber base around the base - again, covering whatever may lie beneath . Thing is, although it might be nice to put in a lovely gas log fire type heater and cosy up in this room, we are pretty close to deciding that we would like to remove the fireplace altogether because it uses up valuable wall space (all other walls have windows or doorways so this is the only potentially blank wall) - and we have ducted heating. It wouldn't be hard to find what is underneath the 'cosmetics' but we don't want to destroy it until we are sure we want to get rid of it, and until we are clear on what we might be in for in terms of work involved - and cost. I was wondering a couple of things..... if there is bricks on the floor (in the ledge part that sticks out into the room), would we expect there to be floorboards underneath? And if so, would we be able to remove the bricks and salvage the boards or would we have to cut the boards out entirely to get rid of the brick?? I suspect we will have to do this with the walls also - but replacing plasterboard and painting is not as difficult (or expensive) as replacing boards and sanding/polishing etc. And even if we replace - or can use boards that are there - will we be able to sand/polish just this area to match the rest of the room/house? (Not us, but a professional). Last thing we want to do is to have to repolish the whole room - which then runs into the whole house (all boards). Hoping someone can help. Thanks guys. HHCIB Re: Removing/closing off fireplace 2Sep 01, 2012 9:44 pm HHCIB-you had actually created this thred twice...so I have deleted the other one for you. Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Removing/closing off fireplace 3Sep 03, 2012 9:44 pm Hi there, Unlikely to be floorboards underneath the brick hearth, depending on the floorboards used in the rest of the room it could be very difficult or relatively easy to match them. If you can get a good match, yes it sould be easy for an experienced professional to polish them (as long as it is not just one board wide). The 'rendered plasterboard' is likely to be cement sheet (though if old enough might be asbestos so be careful). Can you see any nail holes where it has been attached to the fireplace surround?. does the surround stand proud of the rest of the wall? I'm assuming it does, and if so you will have difficulty removing the surround as they are likely brickwork. Is your house solid brick? Once again, if so, the brick surround will be tied to your wall and be difficult to remove. I understand your problem we are in a similar situation though the fireplace was never covered over, but had a broken gas fire in it. We looked at options as every other wall in the lounge has either a big window, doorway with glass surround or 1.8 metre doors, so this was our only 'blank' wall (though it has a fireplace right in the middle). We replaced the heater with a nice looking gas 'log look' heater, does the job of heating well and looks great. It might be cheaper to replace the heater with one that goes in only for looks - that is does no heating but can be turened on for 'ambiance'. If you do this, you can still mount a tv above it. Good luck. My door tends to rub against the frame during winter and I'm looking to fix it so it closes smoothly. Looking online on Youtube I'm seeing methods to fix the alignment and… 0 674 Hi all, My first post, we are building a house and can’t decide the layout of the lounge room. We have a large N/W facing window and are wanting to have a wood slow… 0 13724 No the fireplace doesn’t work. It’s been enclosed. I’m not sure what was removed, as it was done quite some time ago - well before what I can see with photos online… 2 11584 |