Old brick fireplace restoration done right
An old brick fireplace is a beautiful thing. The lovely mellow colour of the bricks, the shapes, the patterns, the texture, it's all incredibly attractive, full of personality. You want to maintain the structure, but you also want to keep the look. Here's what's involved in brick fireplace restoration, the ins and outs of a perfect brick fireplace restoration job.
About historic brick repairs
Historic brick repair requires specialist training and experience. Luckily we've been trained by Historic England, so we know the ropes. If you're in need of sympathetic expert support with the conservation-led repair of historic brickwork, we can do that for you. Historic brick repair is all about using the right materials and methods in the right way. Modern materials and methods are a big no-no. They've caused all sorts of damage to historic buildings and homes across the nation. The general construction industry thinks it knows better, trying to impose modern materials on an ancient, often delicate structure. You can trust our historic specialist experience to get it right - the materials and methods we use are both compatible with and sympathetic to a building's original structure.
What happens to brick as it ages
Just like the clay used by potters, building clay is formed into bricks then baked to a temperature of 900 or more degrees. The higher the firing temperature, the harder the resulting brick. The process is much the same as happens naturally in the earth, when clay is heated by volcanic activity and plate tectonics and turns to stone. Bricks are, effectively, stone. And like stone, they eventually weather and deteriorate.
A variety of things make masonry deteriorate, weaken and eventually crumble. The key to the work we do is to first identify exactly why the deterioration is happening, then act accordingly. Luckily we're experienced in every aspect of trouble-shooting as well as historic brickwork repair and conservation itself.
It's really important to keep remedial work to a minimum. This helps stop the process of deterioration, prevents it from happening again, and because we keep as much of the original brick as possible, keeps things looking authentic.
Can I paint an old brick fireplace?
It's best not to paint old brick, or use any other kind of modern treatment on it. Paints and water-repelling products often make things even worse by trapping moisture in the brickwork or forcing it to travel further to escape, causing havoc as it goes. Sometimes it's best to simply leave the brickwork alone. If this isn't possible we always recommend conservative repairs, avoiding taking the structure down and rebuilding it wherever possible.
What kind of damage will you see?
If your old brick fireplace has been badly repaired in the past, neglected or altered wrongly it can cause damage to accelerate. The same goes if the design was poor in the first place, or the materials and workmanship were less than the best.
You might notice serious decay in the mortar joints, even the bricks themselves, thanks to being constantly wet from a leaking gutter. You might be able to see a crusty-looking deposit called salt crystallisation. Bricks crumble when attacked by frost, especially on chimney stacks, and when somebody has made repairs using a modern cement mortar rather than a lime-based one, damage can occur. You might see cracks and bulges in the brickwork caused by anything from invading tree roots to rotten timber window lintels and doors, even by load-bearing internal walls that have been moved.
Brick fireplace restoration - What we'll do to fix it
With luck, in a minor case, we'll simply need to carefully repoint the brickwork once we've fixed any leaks. we'll always use lime mortar instead of cement, which minimises evaporation through the bricks and helps protect the surface.
Turn a decayed brick to its better face. We sometimes use a method called stitching to repair cracks, especially when the horizontal joints are out of alignment. Because we keep the joints between the bricks fine, the repair will eventually weather in and become impossible to see.
Our complete brick fireplace restoration service
We provide comprehensive brickwork renovations to even the most damaged brick fireplaces, using the quality traditional materials and methods that are essential for this kind of project. Walk this way for superb historic brick construction, lime pointing, tuck-pointing, specialist cleaning and more, including repairs to tree root damage and the chimney itself.
