I have just taking an old chimney breast down (two floors) and am left
with an awkward job trying to make the wall flush for plastering.

This is in an old semi-detached property, on the party wall. The wall
is mostly 9 inch but the flue part of the chimney was just 1 brick
thick.

On the ground floor the brick is more to my side leaving a recess of
about 1.5 inches. Upstairs it is about 2-3 inches.

The whole room has had the plaster removed to the brickwork and will
have a render coat before the plaster skim.

I was thinking about trying to brick the gap up but this would be a
fiddly and time consuming job.

Would covering it with expamet and rendering work? I guess the
downstairs wouldn't be too bad, but upstairs 3+ inches of render would
probably just peel away.

Also the flue is covered in soot, so I guess I would need to wire brush
this off as render wouldn't stick very well.

Any other suggestions welcomed.

Cheers

Martin
--
Martin Carroll

"Martin Carroll" wrote in message

Any other suggestions welcomed.

Cheers

Martin
--
Martin Carroll

Yeah! did you do a proper job of supporting whats left of the chimney above?

I have to support the top!



In article , George
writes

"Martin Carroll" wrote in message

Any other suggestions welcomed.

Cheers

Martin
--
Martin Carroll

Yeah! did you do a proper job of supporting whats left of the chimney above?



--
Martin Carroll

"Martin Carroll" wrote in message
...
I have to support the top!




Nah! just leave it, it'll come down by itself sometime.

Are you sure that will be OK?

In article , George
writes

"Martin Carroll" wrote in message
...
I have to support the top!




Nah! just leave it, it'll come down by itself sometime.



--
Martin Carroll

Martin Carroll wrote:
I have just taking an old chimney breast down (two floors) and am left
with an awkward job trying to make the wall flush for plastering.

This is in an old semi-detached property, on the party wall. The wall
is mostly 9 inch but the flue part of the chimney was just 1 brick
thick.


nothing unusual there

On the ground floor the brick is more to my side leaving a recess of
about 1.5 inches. Upstairs it is about 2-3 inches.


yep - the brickies back then built chimney breasts in pairs, what you are
finding is exactly like every chimney I have ever taken down


The whole room has had the plaster removed to the brickwork and will
have a render coat before the plaster skim.

Any particular reason why it's being rendered? - drylining is cheaper,
cleaner, neater and faster.


I was thinking about trying to brick the gap up but this would be a
fiddly and time consuming job.

Would covering it with expamet and rendering work? I guess the
downstairs wouldn't be too bad, but upstairs 3+ inches of render would
probably just peel away.


It would, and if you insist on rendering it, you may be as well filling the
larger holes with drylining adhesive before rendering commences

Also the flue is covered in soot, so I guess I would need to wire
brush this off as render wouldn't stick very well.


Render doesn't stick well to many things and common bricks are a PITA given
that there's little or no 'bond' to begin with.
A stiff yard brush will get off the worst of the soot and wash down with a
lot of water from top to bottom - this will reduce the suction as well as
remove some of the deposits within the mortar - get the water running down
the wall if at all possible to achieve best results - then, if you are
rendering it, start at the top and use a 1:1 PVA solution over the whole of
the sooted parts, then apply a thin paste of drylining adhesive mixed with
the PVA solution, brush it on and allow to set before rendering.

Any other suggestions welcomed.

If you dryline the area, you still need to brush and wash down the affected
parts, along with the application of PVA but you don't need to apply the
thin base of DL adhesive as the boards will be stuck directly to the wall
with it.

"Martin Carroll" wrote in message
...
Are you sure that will be OK?


If I cut your legs off at the knee do you reckon you'd fall over?

You're either stupid or taking the mick?

Martin Carroll wrote:
Are you sure that will be OK?

George is joking.

I'm assuming you have suitably supported the chimney on the roof?

You will need to get steel gallows made and use a length of thick angle iron
across them, along with support for midfeathers if required

Sorry George, maybe some people would be tempted to leave the stack
hanging, but I am not one of them.

Steel is in place holding up the stack.

Cheers

Martin

In article , George
writes

"Martin Carroll" wrote in message
...
Are you sure that will be OK?


If I cut your legs off at the knee do you reckon you'd fall over?

You're either stupid or taking the mick?



--
Martin Carroll

In article , Phil L
writes
Martin Carroll wrote:
The whole room has had the plaster removed to the brickwork and will
have a render coat before the plaster skim.

Any particular reason why it's being rendered? - drylining is cheaper,
cleaner, neater and faster.

I don't like dry lining. The project is a renovation for resale and
personally I think dry-lining is a shoddy way of working.

Cheers

Martin



--
Martin Carroll

Martin Carroll wrote:
In article , Phil L
writes
Martin Carroll wrote:
The whole room has had the plaster removed to the brickwork and will
have a render coat before the plaster skim.

Any particular reason why it's being rendered? - drylining is
cheaper, cleaner, neater and faster.

I don't like dry lining. The project is a renovation for resale and
personally I think dry-lining is a shoddy way of working.

Cheers

Martin

It makes a better finish too, render cracks and if your house isn't sold
within a few months, it will need further attention.

As for DL being 'shoddy' - it's now the norm and is insisted upon by most
BCO's because of it's insulation properties.

It stays dry too and doesn't track the cold across from exterior walls.

And it has soundproofing properties.

So other than:
Quicker
Cheaper
Neater
Cleaner
Soundproofing
Insulating

I agree, DL isn't as good as the too hard, susceptible to cracking off in
sheets, expensive, laborious, dirty, cold and often damp attracting render

In article , Phil L
writes
Martin Carroll wrote:
In article , Phil L
writes
Martin Carroll wrote:
The whole room has had the plaster removed to the brickwork and will
have a render coat before the plaster skim.

Any particular reason why it's being rendered? - drylining is
cheaper, cleaner, neater and faster.

I don't like dry lining. The project is a renovation for resale and
personally I think dry-lining is a shoddy way of working.

Cheers

Martin

It makes a better finish too, render cracks and if your house isn't sold
within a few months, it will need further attention.

As for DL being 'shoddy' - it's now the norm and is insisted upon by most
BCO's because of it's insulation properties.

It stays dry too and doesn't track the cold across from exterior walls.

And it has soundproofing properties.

So other than:
Quicker
Cheaper
Neater
Cleaner
Soundproofing
Insulating

I agree, DL isn't as good as the too hard, susceptible to cracking off in
sheets, expensive, laborious, dirty, cold and often damp attracting render



So you don't like rendering then?

Martin
--
Martin Carroll

In message , Phil L
writes
Martin Carroll wrote:
Are you sure that will be OK?

George is joking.

I'm assuming you have suitably supported the chimney on the roof?

A top poster ?

That's a rather optimistic assumption ...

--
geoff

Martin Carroll wrote:

So you don't like rendering then?


I have no preference WRT customers who wish to pay, however if it were my
own home, I would dryline everything.
I do tell customers who ask for render that it is inferior *and* expensive
and very few of them choose to have it....this is compared to decades ago
when labour was cheap and almost everything was rendered, but even then it
was still crap - it sets way too hard and cracks up quicker than Amy
Winehouse in a crack factory.

YMMV