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Opening up a fireplace

Still waiting for the fireplace to arrive. I've done a lot of research into asbestos removal techniques and what measures professionals are expected to take. I think I'm going to leave it intact. The problem being that it's cemented to the bricks above and there's no realistic way of removing it without disturbing it significantly. I've seen some sealant paint that's designed for asbestos so I might give it a coat before putting the fireplace in.
 
The asbestos now looks like the least of my problems. Old houses contain many traps. Many bodge jobs that you can't even begin to imagine. Steps made out of glass shards? Yes. Half the rainwater that hits the house roof channelled into a concealed open drain inside the conservatory? Yes. Spiders with bee sized bodies? Yes.

The asbestos thing is rudimentary.
 
Yes old house house years worth of bodge jos for sure. I’ve been in the building trade as a plasterer for 25 years and nothing surprises me now. Even the amount of builders now that continue to bodge up peoples houses!
 
I have been living this for 7 years and it is one of the reasons my project host costs have tripled. I now try to take every area back to bare parts and see the skeleton of the space, to then see what each part is meant to do.
But some of the builders I have hired have still tried to just box over the issues they didn’t want to solve. Then a year later the issue returns and I have to properly fix what the expert was meant to do.
 
At least with Victorian, you have mod cons like foundations and DPCs - no such features in my cottage which was built a couple of hundred years before yours!
Recently just had to strip our sitting room out to finally get to the root of a damp/high water table issue and I've seen more than I want to of the nuts and bolts of this place.
 
That is a fantastic bodge. Someone knowingly said “that will do” and moved on.
We had gaffer tape on the joins of our down pipes but yours wins.
 
It's taken me forever (9 weeks!) but the dining room fireplace is finally in. I ended up having to cast a new concrete hearth. Luckily the firebox fitted the opening without disturbing the asbestos or the pipework for the back boiler. It was close though! Need to do skirting boards at some point but that can wait.ECA9CB16-3072-4B0A-B8A2-F2EFDC1DF3E4.jpeg
 
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