Stuck!! Fireplace Crumbly Brick - Rerender

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Spadez88

New Member
Hi,

I’m really stuck with this.

I’ve opened up my fireplace and I was meant to be getting a plasterer in a month to render the inside of it. Although we were just going to have it as an aesthetic fireplace, I wanted to ideally have it sorted in a way that someone could put a wood burner in there down the line without having to re-render. So it would be good to make if heat resistant.

The trouble is, I’ve had many different suggestions and I’m really not sure what to do. The best I can piece together is this from my limited knowledge. I’ve lost about 2cm of brick dept in some places but been told it shouldn’t be a problem structurally.

1. Wire brush the brick to remove lose bits

2. Redo the pointing of the brick work.

3. Wash the back in a pva solution to help seal and help the next stage set.

Firstly, how am I doing so far on the above? Then in terms of the next stage I’ve had a lot of different suggestions which seems to mostly be either Lime mortar or Fire cement. Can anyone please recommend which would be better?
 

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T
Dot and dab fermacel power panels and point your joint up in fire cement then paint. Job done
Thank you for the reply TinyTom. I do appreciate it. Just to follow up, can I ask the advantage to this approach? Only that a departure from what has been suggested before and I just want to make sure I am kicking things off in the right way. Assume this would also be fine for a log burner to go in?
 
T

Thank you for the reply TinyTom. I do appreciate it. Just to follow up, can I ask the advantage to this approach? Only that a departure from what has been suggested before and I just want to make sure I am kicking things off in the right way. Assume this would also be fine for a log burner to go in?
The advantage is the boards can withstand the heat a log burner kicks out without delaminating from the background substrate, sand cement or lime cement render can crack and blow off the brick work under excess heat, then if you want a smooth finish the plaster skim can crack and come away from the render backing.
I’m a plasterer and a heats qualified engineer, iv fitted around 100 stoves open fires back boilers and I always recommend this approach. Touch wood iv never had a problem
 
I'm a HETAS installer aswell and agree with Tinytom, it's your only real option. The brickwork is suffering from acid attack from the old coal soot and will keep crumbling away, you cannot really neutralise it.
 
Really appreciate the tips. As a final comment, you said there is nothing i can do to stop the bricks crumbling. Is it worth treating them with any sealer before I use these panels over the top?
 
I'm a HETAS installer aswell and agree with Tinytom, it's your only real option. The brickwork is suffering from acid attack from the old coal soot and will keep crumbling away, you cannot really neutralise it.
Get much heats work mate? Iv got 2 open fires this week
 
Good for you, I like doing open fires but less of them these days. Yesterday I cocked up and sent my reply to Danny, saying it was the usual quiet season with a bit but not much on, suddenly today I've got a developer wanting 4 stove and fireplace jobbies done in a hurry - depends if money matches mouth, but I'll price fairly.
 
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