Home DIY

It's a ball ache to remove the chimney breast completely and it means the firelace and its chimney in the room below is now decorative.

Just the fascia/fireplace itself - not the breast. Basically cover it over (if so how?) and remove the pretty bit with the mantle so we've got a clean wall for the bed to sit against and two 'alcoves' where I'd place shelves or get some cabinets done in time.

Did have the bed there when we first moved but our toddler liked to climb on top of the mantle and throw himself onto the bed.

Oh. Just pull that sucker off. Will need a bit of tidy up afterwards but there you go. I've not done it, but could imagine a support for a bit of plasterboard like a mini-stud wall could be assembled reasonably easily. Put a vent in it, if it needs it.

If you got space just leave the surround in the shed or something in case you want to put it back.

If you don’t want it flog it to a fireplace restorer/reclamation place? Might even do the removal in a careful fashion for you.

That looks like a decent candidate for repair with some wood spliced in with an epoxy resin like repaircare. Complete cill replacement would be more time consuming and needs some interior decoration.

If it's just that work then it would need to happen over at least 2 days. I don't think it would take 16hrs but even with the best conditions it needs time to dry between coats of paint.

If you've no other work going on that's a lot of standing about.

For that reason it's not unreasonable. You also need a lot of small quantities of different materials which is a bitch to price.

This.

@CYOA - there's a reclaim place round the back of waitrose over the bridge / tunnel

that's what we did. messy job but worth it to make the room more usable as a double

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Thanks - we got some stuff from there when we moved in.

Did you put a vent in? Trying to work out if it needs it. The chimney still functions from the fireplace in the room below and would like to keep it that way so presume need to make sure my bed won't burst into flames.

breast's redundant now so didn't consider putting a vent in. we could have removed the full chimney breast I guess but that's an even messier (and more expensive) job + means we have some nice recessed shelving in the alcoves on the lower floor

If the chimney is open at the top you need a vent. If it has a ventilated cap, you probably don’t. But it’s not going to save you much by not fitting one

If you intend to use the downstairs fireplace for burning any fuel other than bio eth (that requires no flue) get it lined.

Tl;dr safe than sorry

Having been down this rabbit warren, where I got to was that in general, the right answer is to take all the chimney breasts out, and the chimney up top if you can, as they are a liability when they are unused, and a costly and somewhat frowned upon luxury when they are used as intended to burn wood or coal or gas. And in smaller houses they take up space, that you need. If you want the cozy feels, burn bio eth that requires no flue.

If you really want to use them or like the aesthetic they really should be lined, but this is costly and messy work. At minimum a fireplace company or chimney sweep can test them for integrity but they will always suggest getting them lined.

What's the best way of neatening this cabling up, avoiding plastic trunking? I could rewire for galvanised piping but would like to avoid that if possible. I thought there would be more D shaped metal conduit options available, but perhaps that's more for internal applications?

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Don't know if I want to google how much cost/hassle it is to line a chimney. But thank you - all useful knowledge.

Disconnecting it and running the cable through conduit is probably the simplest?

£2k-£5k depending on complexity and access.

In the spirit of the thread, you can DIY it if you or a mate are not afraid of heights and can get access to the roof and are comfortable smashing a hole in the front of your chimney breast to install the plate seal above the fireplace.

Getting a bio-eth burner fitted is less hassle and way less anti-social ;)

That bit isn't too bad, I just thought there was shielding available I could put round the cables. The other thing that put me off is that I'm not too sure yet how the piping couplings would work to the switch, an L bend etc. I'll do some more research on Deta etc, it does seem the right thing to do.

Galvanised copex conduit or SWA amoured cable. sounds OTT but once fitted should be good for +10 years. If you go down the conduit route, should run min 150mm above ground. amoured cable you can bury, just keep a record of the route if garden maintenance and future external works are planned..

There are glands for connecting to isolation switch, elbows for right angles, decent wall fixings..

I got a man cave planned for our garden so these are my options.

Toilet siphon is knackered, doesn't flush more often than not. Close coupled cistern so the whole thing had to come off the wall. New siphon works but the flow seems rubbish, not convinced it will clear much but will have to see. Bloody low flow things, I'm sure if saves loads of water but not if I end up replacing the otherwise functioning toilet.

Changing a light fitting that was wired into this. It didn’t have an earth wire. The new cable does have an earth wire, can I connect the earth wire to where this other one is fitted? I.e. is it okay to stick two earth wires in one hole? Well actually in this case it looks like this would make it three. I did try googling…

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Really depends on the design - our Caromas are champs and I only ever use the smaller flush option.

Don't see why not, if they fit and are secure.

I usually end up re-creating the rose with wago connectors because the new fixing won't sit nice over the exiting rose, and doing what you are suggesting with the earth if the fixing has one. I'd rather have a double insulated fixing tbh.

Someone more qualified is probably now going to suggest it creates a horrible death trap :(

Anyone quietened their stairs? Seen all sorts of guides online but just looking to hear some of your experiences.

Removed the carpet from ours and sanding them just now and it'd be nice to have them a bit quieter.

Fit a nice carpet