Hello,
I posted this in the masonry forum but thought it may do better here because its "PAINT & SEALER" specific.
Forgive me if its a no no or not to do so.

Hi,

I did several searches on this but didn't find exactly or all I needed.

We are remodeling an old cabin in the woods of New Hampshire (circa 1950)

The original fire place is a shallow "beehive" style fire place with an updated cinderblock/tile lined chimney...
It was inspected and although the fireplace it's self is antiquated and in rough shape the chimney is fine and completely usable.
We are going to have a steel liner sent down the chimney to a wood stove that will sit just outside the fire place on a stone hearth.

We scrubbed and cleaned the fireplace inside and out.
For the most part the brick looks okay but there are some hair line cracks inside and out.
You can see light though one of them if you look just right.
Also there was some damaged wood where the top of the fireplace meets the wood framing and where the chimney meets the wood siding of the cabin.
It looks like water may have been getting in and sitting between the brick and wood causing the wood to rot.
I was able to replace the wood and repair that damage.

So now I'd like to seal and maybe paint the brick.

I'm thinking I could use a fire resistant/block foam and spray it between the wood siding, brick and chimney.

Chip out and re-mortar any loos or suspicious mortar between the bricks
and then "seal" if that's the right word all the brick inside and out with some sort of "sealer" to seal the cracks and brick from moisture and air (leakage)

Then I was thinking a coat of some sort of epoxy/paint that would coat the brick inside and out to protect it give it a more uniform look.

Can anyone give me a step by step process and more importantly recommend the Sealer and Paint's I should use?

What sealer? What Paint?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
THANKS

 

I'll just address the paint portion of your questions.

There is a wide range of paints that can be used. Primer is fairly simple, most any primer will work, most use a latex primer. SWP sells a Loxon line of masonry paints/primers. A lot depends on what you want the finish product to look like. Enamels [oil base or latex] will stay clean better than flat paints. Oil base enamel is more durable but can only be recoated with oil and many don't care for the odor and longer drying time.