Hi,
We are in the process of refurbishing a 1930’s house we bought a couple of months ago, the first job is to do up 2 rooms one downstairs and one directly above. As part of this we wanted to board over an old chimney breast which previously had a gas fire and shelves built into the chimney breast downstairs and shelves upstairs. I removed these and was greeted which the pictures below…
The chimney stack on the roof has been knocked down and tiled over.
Downstairs, I have removed the gas fire and shelves, the plaster on the external brick looked in a better state and there aren’t any signs of damp. There is a nice hole straight through the brick though which was used for the gas fire.
In the room upstairs the external brick is damp (I have so far removed most of the plaster) and it looks to have concrete slabs over at the top and bottom and has some kind of plastic at the top which I assume was to stop damp?
The questions are (I have done some reading on forums but I just want to confirm my thoughts!)…
What should I do before I get it boarded up, if anything?
Do I need to smash through the concrete slabs at the top of bottom of the opening or just leave be?
Should I put in an airbrick and maybe block up using aerated concrete blocks before the plaster board? Downstairs would be easy as there is already a hole in the wall anyway!
Should I be installing insulation anywhere (what type and should I stick this on the external brick or black bag full of loft insulation!?)?
Many thanks in advance!!!!
Dave