Home DIY

I’ve found the original 1930s handrail for my stairs in the basement. It’s snapped in several places and I am planning to drill small holes in the broken ends then add dowels between them and glue it back together.

Is this a fools errand and will never work?

If it might work what would be the best glue to use?

Popped off the cover last night, remnant of newspaper from 1977, so I am assuming this was the last time this beauty was used. Half a buckets worth of dust and soot removed from in and around hearth. Chimney sweep booked, our fingers are crossed that the flue is still intacted. Then smoke test with detectors upstairs and in loft space before we utilise this original 1905 wood burner.

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Beautiful! So good to find that gem behind a bit of hardboard.

What are the breaks like? If they’re jaggy and diagonal kinda think then decent wood glue and plenty of tightly wrapped tape to clamp it should be enough. If they’re more like clean square ended breaks where it was originally joined you have more issues. Could try and worktop joining bolt on the underside, plus glue. Any white / PVA will be fine.

drill small holes in the broken ends then add dowels between them and glue it back together.

Getting the alignment right is likely to be a right ballache, lol.

Yeah. One is an engineered Wood and the other is vinyl. It's something I never considered when buying.

Mainly jagged and diagonal. Good idea on taping it I hadn’t thought of that .

I wouldn’t bother with dowels then, if they’re jagged splits there should be plenty of surface area. Could screw through for belt and braces. See technical illustration:

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Thanks @dbr once everything is cleaned up, marble polished, cast iron grate wire scrubbed and treated with whatever turns it black, I’ll be happy.

Cor yeah with that floor you’ve been installing that is going to look so nice!!

Sorry if I missed it, but did you find that fireplace covered over?! Thats madness if so becasue it looks amazing... floors looking great too.

New power tool day. Lots of fun chopping the lengths of branch that are too small to bother with my bigger chainsaw but have never had the inclination to do with a hand saw.
Also has an extension pole for minor tree surgery planned tomorrow.

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Hey thanks @chrisbmx116 @Tenderloin The property has be rented out for decades. I knew the fireplace was there but it was filthy. So considered looking at it properly once I lived in the place for a bit first. If fireplace still functions well without any problems then we will light it up on high days and holidays. Last night we gave it a go, the wood smoke went up the flue without filling the room. Also the glazed tile surround and hearth make total sense brings drama to the front room reflecting the fire glow.

I suspect most of the original houses here in East Ham were built in 1905, have their fireplaces boarded up or removed along with chimney breasts to create more internal space. It seems a shame to remove an original feature like this. So front room make over is almost done, last bits of parquet border and chunky/ tall ogee skirting board to fit and paint.

This will be our chillax space with glass shelves, chesterfield, cocktail chairs for drinking, listening to music, parties (post Covid)

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SO SO SO JELLY.
We have a 12 hour YouTube video of a fire on our TV atm as a very poor and provincial substitute.

Ha, having an open fire in the house is a massive hazard though. We tested with offcuts of oak parquet, the irony was not lost on my missus who stood by with fire extinguishers in both hands, in case it got out of control.

Get yourself a fireguard for when you're not in the room and you'll be fine. Also decent, dry, seasoned hardwood so it doesn't spit.

Become a furniture maker. We’ve got walnut, oak, beech and probably some sycamore sizzling away.

I'd get the chimney checked out before you use it again.

Downstairs had two fire engines pumping several hundred gallons of water of up the chimney to put out the blaze they had. They'd just had the carpets done in their living room too.

This was in a proper lined chimney that just hadn't been swept in a couple of years.

They were completely unaware anything was going wrong until they looked out of the window and saw the embers raining down on the garden.

Thankfully it was just internal to the chimney (with big sparks/embers coming out of the top) and didn't affect either us or the top floor flat although the fire brigade were up with the IR cameras checking the walls in our flat on and off for a good few hours until they were satisifed it was all ok.

A fire extinguisher wouldn't have done much to help.

Spent a good bit time this morning clearing up the ash our lovely sellers left us to deal with.

Fireplaces look great but why people insist on burning stuff in them is beyond me.

Quite why nobody has tagged @amey yet with all this fireplace chat is beyond me.

Can anyone recommend a source of horizontal slatted fence panels? Thanks!

Thanks @Greenbank. Yes I am hoping to get a chimney sweep in at the earliest opportunity. It’s a busy time of year for them, with fires being relit for winter. I’ll not burn anything in the fireplace until it’s been checked, it’s not been in use for a very long time and there could be old bird nests in the flue.
Cheers
Almac

Clearly you are not the seductive / romantic fella I mistook you for, lol

Anyone reccomend some good floating shelf brackets? going into brick walls.

Poetic wisdom on firewood