With the arrival of our first baby less than 6 weeks away, Mrs Mac has decided that now is the perfect time to redecorate our bedroom. To be fair, I did promise to do this, however having spent a lot of time working outside on our driveway/building walls/laying lawns (which now looks fantastic), I kinda let this one slip. To be fair, it'll probably be easier to do this now than it will be after the baby arrives.
The bulk of it is fairly cosmetic, stripping numerous layers of wallpaper, giving some fitted wardrobes a facelift and getting a new carpet down. One thing that I'm considering is removing an old fireplace which has been blocked off, the problem is I'm not sure how big a job this will be.
It's an upstairs bedroom directly above our living room in a 1936 Semi. The hearth has already been removed and a previous owner has simply boarded up the fireplace (I can still see the outline of the mantelpiece etc). I would love to think that it'll be a case of getting a club hammer and bolster and chipping the brick off the wall, then board the whole firewall, leaving an air vent. However, I've got a niggling feeling that it may not be as straightforward - why would the previous owner go to the hassle of lifting the hearth (to leave a level floor) and not remove the fireplace? Does he know something I don't? It's the same situation in both upstairs bedrooms, however in the living room and dining room, both have been completely removed.
If anyone has any experience of doing this, I'd love to hear any hints and tips.
Is there an air-vent already in the fireplace? I wonder why you are doing this if you could simply re-decorate over it. I would only consider removing it if I were going to replace it with another fireplace...
There isn't a vent there at the moment - this is something which needs to be addressed. The reason for removing it is that we'd like to get a level wall, at the moment the fireplace sticks out like a sore thumb. Removing it would give us a straight wall, a little more space and would look a lot better.
I'd assume that it'd be a case of unscrewing the lugs and lifting it off. Looking at a couple of websites, I'd guess it's a concrete unit, tiled and bolted to the wall.
Hi MacFlat We have removed 3 1930's fireplaces recently, and although it's not hard to do they do weigh a ton! MrP had to smash one up after unscrewing it from the wall in order to get it down the stairs as it was so heavy. It is worth the sweat and toil though, and depending on what you want to put on that wall, you could use the recess for shelving. It does of course, as you said, have to be ventilated. We found a well mummified racing pigeon, complete with ID ring, in the last fireplace
Mac, Have you considered finding out (by carefully removing the boarding) what the fireplace actually is? Is it perhaps worth keeping/ restoring as a (period) feature?
Can't quite picture what it looks like now though. Is there a chimney breast of some kind with a mantlepiece hidden behind boarding?
Maybe I'm wishfully barking up the wrong tree, but could this be a hidden 'beauty'?
Pont - you're absolutely right, there's a reasonable chance that there will be a nice fireplace behind there, however the hearth has already been removed, so we would need to be quite inventive to get another one to look right. At the moment, we have a chimney breast with built in cupboards in each alcove. On the chimney breast the fireplace has been boarded up and papered over. There's no vent, but no sign of dampness and, judging by the layers of wallpaper, I'd say this was done 15-20 years ago so the chimney must have been well capped.
I've seen our neighbours original fireplace and it's not at all attractive, very plain grey tiles in a simple shape. The bedrooms may be different though, if it does turn out to be a beauty, then we may need to re-consider and re-arrange our bedroom to accommodate it. At least with a nipper en-route, we'll have someone to clean the chimney if we do..
I am currently trying to get a hold of my mate to give me a hand, he's an ex builder and a big lad to boot, so he could be very handy with removing any fireplace. Having done a bit more reading, I understand that most 30's fireplaces were made out of a concrete section which was tiled on top of, so it's going to be pretty weighty.
I would strongly recommend keeping the fireplace if it is cast iron, or has any historical or aesthetic value. You could keep it boarded up for the next owner if you don't like it personally, and it will add to the value of your property.
If, however, it is an ugly concrete item which no one is likely to want, you are unlikely to do any damage to the wall by hitting it with s sledgehammer (just don't damage the lintel, or brick arch!)
But surely ugly or not, it will have historical value? Just because it's not attractive to our mind in 2006, doesn't mean to say that in 20 years time that ugly concrete and tile item won't be desirable?!
I know what you mean though, I need to proceed with caution, the previous owner removed the fireplaces in the living and dining rooms, which admittedly wouldn't have been too attractive judging by my neighbours, but were still the ones our 1930's architects specified.
I think you would be wise to keep it, MacFlat. when I was a girl, people were frantically ripping out all those "ugly" Edwardian and victorian fireplaces, picture rails, dados, high skirtings etc. now the salvage yards are charging a fortune for what survived, and a house that has them is worth much more than a"modernised " one.
it's a generational thing.
behind every successful man is a disbelieving mother-in-law
I take your point, MacFlat. I also agree with what you say, but I didn't want to come over all preachy by saying 'you must preserve it', which is probably what I was thinking.
I know what you mean though, It's a tough choice. Having looked at the room last night and thought about everything we want to do with it, we'll probably have to leave it as is for a while yet. We could rush it and get it freshened up before baby arrives, but we wouldn't have the time to do things exactly as we'd like and there's no point in doing it twice.
