70's fireplace - Help

D

Duckie

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Hi folks. We've just bought a fab 30 yr old bungalow which has been updated in every way, except for an ugly 70's stone fireplace in the lounge.

The varnished stone cladding runs the entire length of one wall in the room, and is about a 2 feet high on either side of the open fireplace (which is about 4 feet). Its topped with a dark wood shelf.

I'd love to get a lump hammer at it straight away and purchase a new hearth and surround, but as we're FTBers we are a little tight on funds.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to disguise this monster. Painting it wouldn't make it much better as its all lumps and bumps, and the area is too big for screens and nice plants. I've heard of people who cladded the whole lot in MDF and painted it as a temporary measure - would this be safe?

Thanks!
 
On one of those house improvement programmes recently they had this very problem and for a budget job simply boxed in the fireplace (with some sort of MDF I presume) to disguise it while selling the property. If you do this make sure that you leave the necessary ventilation that a chimney will require.
 
Oh Duckie.....I have the exact same problem only my lovely fireplace is white marble (the old fashioned shiney kind with a grey fleck!). I have a built in bookcase to one side of the fireplace and then the fireplace runs the whole length of the rest of the wall. I've been watching so many house programmes just to get ideas but to no avail. I think on "Put your money where your house is" last week they got an ordinary fireplace and put a lump hammer to it but I haven't seen anyone with our elongated fireplace problem. I have timber flooring also so if I took mine out, the floor would only go so far. Somebody recommended that I build up a TV unit or the like over the long useless bit but I don't know if I could stomach much longer looking at the white fireplace. I'd be interested to know if anyone had any success stories replacing theirs.
 
ribena said:
Oh Duckie.....I have the exact same problem only my lovely fireplace is white marble (the old fashioned shiney kind with a grey fleck!).
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Give it a few years and they will probably come back into fashion in some sort of post modernist ironic pop art way and then you'll be the first on your block to have one! :)
 
HAH! You've a good sense of humour Clubman. It must be the Friday feeling..... :p
 
My mother has one of those fireplaces that my father installed and while she hates it I think it looks OK. I guess childhood nostalgia helps one to retain fond memories for all sorts of tasteless crap. ;)
 
My mother has a red brick fireplace that I used to hate with a passion. Not any more........it's so much nicer than mine!! These things do grow on you though, but I would hope that my fairly decent taste wouldn't alter to such a degree that I'd actually some day admire this fireplace!!:D
 
Duckie, is it made of brick? Painted brickwork can look good and have seen it in home improvement programmes. Having said that, I've just had a 1950s tiled brown fireplace ripped out (even childhood nostalgia couldn't make it in any way pretty) and the hole filled with a ventilated sheet of wood. Cost was about 300. I've now got a hole in the carpet where the hearth used to be (doh!) but sure i've a cupboard to hide it till the next round of redecoration.
 
Unfortunately for me, Gordanus, it's simply clad in horrific faux stone (shiny brown horribleness) and topped with a shiny faux mahogany shelf. Ribena, mine sounds exactly like yours except for colour.

I think I'll just live with it and then get the job done properly when we have funds to pull it down and buy a new fireplace and re-floor the room. The current carpet isn't too bad, but I'd like to replace it with wooden floors anyway.

On a separate note, does anyone know if the new self-plastering product (Fibertech) works on faintly stippled ceilings? Another bugbear of mine!

Cheers!
 
I saw "Put your money where your house is" again the other night as it's constantly repeated. They took out the horrific brown shiny fireplace, plastered up the whole wall behind it and just put a stove in the open hearth. It looked lovely but I'm not sure that I'd like such a contemporary look with no mantlepiece at all. Is your whole fireplace only 4ft long?? If so, I know the fireplace you're talking about. Mine is 10'4 in length in total!!! The fireplace itself is 5'4" and then another 5' of just marble attached to the side of it.:eek:
 
Is your whole fireplace 4 ft long?

Oh no!! I wish!! This bugger is 16ft long, 4 ft high in the middle and about 2 ft high on either side on the actual fireplace (which is 4ft wide)

Thanks for the tip Ribena, I must look out for a repeat as I wouldnt mind going contemporary in this room.
 
You really and truly have my sympathies Duckie. Look at UK TV Style, it's great for those kind of programmes.
 
Fireplace repair

Hi,

I have a fireplace in my 1930's terraced house that needs repair. The original surround is there but nothing else i.e. no hearth, grate etc. The fireback is also badly cracked and the chimney looks like it needs cleaning.

Where would I buy a hearth, grate etc. cheaply? How much do they cost?

Does anyone know of anywhere that would do the above repair work and cleaning and how much would it cost?

Ta, Beefs
 
i had exactly the fireplace Ribena has described, only the 'hole' for the fire was on the left, so nothing was centred. I loathed it with a passion, and it killed every colour scheme!

I replaced it with another - out with the old and in with the new in half an hour and 750€. I also extended the chimney breast using MDF - so it's now a 'hidden' cupboard. The room is now balanced and beautiful!!

honestly, if you really loathe it, just change it! to be honest, getting rid of it is only an investment!

:)
 
Funny, I'm used to mine now and don't mind it as much! My 'hole' is to the right. It would be much easier if it was in the centre. However, a few plants and TV positioned correctly and it you would hardly notice.

I wonder Beefs if you should call in a builder and ask them to check the chimney out in case it's cracked. You can pick up new grate etc. in any hardware store, they're quite reasonable. I think my grate cost €25 or thereabouts. You'll need to measure as there are different size grates. Chimney cleaning costs around €30-€50 depending on where you are. My neighbour does it so I don't have to look too far!

Have you considered putting an electric fire in it's place if you don't use the fire or a stove of some sort??
 
My friend had one of these off-centre mad-length stone clad fire places and it broke her heart and nothing worked until she got rid of it. Same with my sister who also had one but which I quite liked actually.

My house had one of the bricked up jobs with the fifties iridescent/shiny tile hearth. It was shocking. So I just painted the whole lot with a multi-job primer and then painted it off-white which matched the colour scheme. And wonder of wonders, it actually came up gorgeous.

I was going to get a solid fuel stove for it when I initially moved in but decided against it in the end and booked a skiing holiday instead. Against all my best instincts I bought one of those fake electric stoves in the B&Q sale for 117 euro and it is the business. Instant heat is not to be knocked! The stove looks well when it's off. Still not keen on the "flame effect" but I'm blocking that bit out.

Rebecca
 
Duckie said:
On a separate note, does anyone know if the new self-plastering product (Fibertech) works on faintly stippled ceilings? Another bugbear of mine!

Cheers!
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I would think so but you would have to put it on failrly thick, I used it on walls and I think it's a fantastic product! I have those ceiling but there are not priority at the moment but will probably look worse once I've the walls done.
 
There was one of these in our house when we bought it 5 years ago, and I absolutely hated it. It was that shiney lumpy stone that kinda swept across the wall and up to the ceiling. We just put laths and cladding in front of it, sealed up around where it joined the chimney with heat proof cement, plastered and skimmed, put a 2" in chrome surround around the opening to the fire (no fireplace - very minimal looking) and had a black marble hearth built. I really love it now. The fire is a coal fire, and during the winter its lit almost every day. We have had no problems with this, ventilation is fine and theres no cracking of the plaster. You can also do nice things like situate opes with nice lighting on the new false wall.
 
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