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replacing a brick fireplace - is this a beginner-friendly DIY project?
Our living room is really pretty - but a blank slate. We have no living room furniture (all of it went into the family room) - so we have no style to work around. It's got a nice big window, beautiful old, but refinished red oak floors, and a big old fashioned brick fireplace.
I hate the brick, and I really want to replace it with a pretty wood mantel before we 'do' the living room. The hearth is raised about 3 inches, and is also brick. I want to demo the hearth, replace it with marble tiles, and put a pretty white mantel around the fireplace.
Here are my questions - is it going to be a recipe for disaster to try to chisel out the hearth and replace it with marble tile? How about the fireplace, it only comes out about 3 inches from the wall - should I just cover the brick with more marble tiles before putting the mantel on? Paint the brick before putting the mantel on? Demo the brick, put up cement board and then tile over that?
How hard is it going to be to build a mantel? It can't be that hard, right? I love this mantel: http://www.mantelsdirect.com/glacier.html, which doesn't look that difficult to build... I did win a woodshop scholarship about 15 years ago LMAO!
Here is a pic from the MLS of the living room before we moved in. Weird artwork above the fireplace is not mine LOL!
Re: replacing a brick fireplace - is this a beginner-friendly DIY project?
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It shouldn't be too too hard. The hearth is probably just resting on the sub floor, so that should be easy to remove. I recommend concrete board over the exposed brick on the fireplace, then wrapping it with a mantel. You may need to lop off that brick ledge on the top of the fireplace.
Good luck!
Is it a working fireplace?
We replaced our small stained surround with a new wood one with tile, but we didn't actually mess with the whole fireplace part. We actually tiled right over the brick hearth.
DH built our mantel because we couldn't find one that fit our dimensions.
Here's a progress pic, where you can see the outline of the old mantel and surround:
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No don't do this. I've never seen anyone construct a mantle that way unless they are doing a full build out (where the entire fireplace is boxed in to the ceiling) and even then a few anchors are often used in the brick. People set lots of heavy things on mantles and mantles themselves can weigh a lot and are often front heavy It needs to be attached to the brick for support. There are a number of different masonry fasteners that can be used.
OP if you are an experienced woodworker you should not have a problem building a mantle. Attaching it to the brick will be the hardest part that isn't too difficult but note you will be permanently ruining the brick so take your time and make sure it's a size, shape, and location you will be happy with in the long run.
This is beautiful! I hadn't even thought to try to encase the hearth... did you just lay the tile right over the brick? Do you need something other than thinset to bond the tile to the brick?
I hadn't thought to anchor the new mantel to the brick, but that makes plenty of sense. I think the hearth though should just be on the subfloor and not key to the structure of the mantel, right?
I think maybe I am a little chicken to do anything that can't be reversed. I need to be brave and accept that I hate the brick and just go for it.
Yes, the mantel and the surround will all need to be anchored to the brick.
If I were you, I would cover the exposed brick near the front with thinset and then tapcon cement board right to the brick. The remainder can be framed with wood and then covered with the new mantel. The cement board can then be tiled or whatever.
We did two coats of thinset on the brick to even things out. Then when we laid the tile, we damped the dried thinset, then did thinset and laid the tiles. It was pretty easy since it wasn't a huge area. This was actually our first tiling job.
Wives Unscripted