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I have a cabin in the woods that I inherited from my grandparents and I am finishing many projects that my grandfather had started. About 15 years ago he had the fireplace and chimney replaced. The fireplace mostly is on the exterior and is quite large, as is the chimney. Unfortunately, he had it built with cinder blocks and never covered it, for cost reasons I’m sure. My problem is that it sticks out like a sore thumb in an area with 1920’s era cabins that have nice, and usually small, chimneys covered in local slate or more likely river rock.
I have thought of covering the fireplace/chimney structure with slate, manufactured rock tiles, etc. It occurred to me that if I covered it with concrete or stucco and painted it to match the cabin, it would look pretty good, would be far less of an effort, and could be performed sooner than the other options. I saw this the other day on a house here in Seattle and first thought the person was crazy to stucco a nice brick fireplace even though I thought it looked good and it dawned on me that maybe it wasn’t brick and that I could do that at the cabin. Any opinions yet? The structure does feel warm on the outside during a raging fire if that matters.
If I can’t get to any of these options soon, is there a treatment I should apply in the mean time to prevent water damage. I don’t have any idea if it has been treated. Snow backs up against the chimney for months in the winter.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
chris bailey
Seattle, WA (home)
Chinook Pass, WA (cabin)
Replies
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I would just parge it. You can give that a rough texture if you like. Parging is inexpensive, easy, looks ok (in the right situation), is very weather resistant and can be covered later with something else when you feel like a project.
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I have a cabin in the woods that I inherited from my grandparents and I am finishing many projects that my grandfather had started. About 15 years ago he had the fireplace and chimney replaced. The fireplace mostly is on the exterior and is quite large, as is the chimney. Unfortunately, he had it built with cinder blocks and never covered it, for cost reasons I'm sure. My problem is that it sticks out like a sore thumb in an area with 1920's era cabins that have nice, and usually small, chimneys covered in local slate or more likely river rock.
I have thought of covering the fireplace/chimney structure with slate, manufactured rock tiles, etc. It occurred to me that if I covered it with concrete or stucco and painted it to match the cabin, it would look pretty good, would be far less of an effort, and could be performed sooner than the other options. I saw this the other day on a house here in Seattle and first thought the person was crazy to stucco a nice brick fireplace even though I thought it looked good and it dawned on me that maybe it wasn't brick and that I could do that at the cabin. Any opinions yet? The structure does feel warm on the outside during a raging fire if that matters.
If I can't get to any of these options soon, is there a treatment I should apply in the mean time to prevent water damage. I don't have any idea if it has been treated. Snow backs up against the chimney for months in the winter.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
chris bailey
Seattle, WA (home)
Chinook Pass, WA (cabin)