Looking For Inner Beauty

The fireplace started out, well, let's just say the before picture doesn't do it justice. The mantle was a simple shelf, the side trim was cheap and not well tied in to the mantle, and the marble was ugly (and glued to the brick). The brass screen had to go, and what didn't even make an appearance in photos was an "electric fire log kit", if it could really be called that, as it was really just a few sticks nailed together with a lightbulb inside and a cord hanging out of the front of the fireplace. So it didn't take me very long to decide to expose the brick wall and fireplace beneath. Since the side wall (which I will show in images later) was the party wall for the house to the north, which was built ca. 1908, I knew that the brick would be a better quality 'face brick', as it had been exposed to the elements for several years before construction on my house was begun. What I did not expect was that the brick of the fireplace would be a lower grade brick, as it was meant to be covered with plaster. Also, unexpected was that the corner of the fireplace, where it meets the side wall, would not be tied into the wall, but rather would be ragged and staggered. This is something that I will deal with later, but in the interim I'm quite happy with the final result, which I'll post a picture of in a future post.

The basic process took a few weekends. I started by removing the existing plaster with a claw hammer and wonder bar (crow bar). Once most of the plaster has been removed, a rigid horse hair brush was used to further clean the brick. Once I had removed as much of the plaster as possible, diluted muriatic acid was used to further clean the brick. While I'm very happy with the results, it is a lot of work to get the plaster off. I wasn't anticipating doing exposed brick anywhere else in the house, but have subsequently decided to expose the brick in the bathroom, as the proximity of the clawfoot tub to the wall would make it otherwise difficult to tile properly. So, just when I thought I'd never expose brick again, I'm doing so. Never say never!