Hello,

I recently bought a house that had a den with a lot of masonry. Basically there is entire wall of real brick with a medium sized fireplace built in. There is also a masonry wall dividing the kitchen from the den. I think the masonry is ugly and I would like to drywall over all of it, and when finished come back and put either tile or stone on the fireplace and all the way to the ceiling. I have included three picture so that you might get a better idea of what I'm dealing with. Do my plans sound good? I was just going to use furring strips and then apply 1/2 drywall. Any suggestions, ideas or tips are welcome.


Thanks...

Picture One
Picture Two
Picture Three

 

Hi
I would take the bick off. You will find there more room behing and you will gain space.

cheers

pg

 

Would take off the brick be an extremely difficult task? I imagine I will have to then frame in a wall in it's place unless there already is one, I cannot tell.

Ideas?

Thanks...

 

hi
from the pic i'm sure there a wall behing those brick.
it's a hard job but with a sledge hammer or a jack hammer should be ok.
You going to have dust for sure you will need to cover the furniture and maybe install plastic sheet to separate the room.
You might have to install some studs and drywall.

Good luck

pg

 

I am going to be putting up drywall around the fireplace. Do I need anything special here, (board, mud,etc)? Or will normal drywall and mud handle the heat?

Thanks...

 

I would tend to agree that there's some framing behind the brick and that it can be taken off before drywalling. It'll definitely be a dirty dusty mess when you start into it. If you can't remove all the furniture to a seperate area of the house or garage, try to group it all together away from the work area and cover it with plastic. If there's carpet on the floor, and you're not planning on replacing it, cover it entirely with a heavy mil of plastic and tape it down with duct tape before you start. We generally use Class X fire-rated drywall 5/8" on walls around wood burning fireplaces, many of the newer gas fireplaces don't require this according to specs, but I still like to use it, better to be safe than sorry, fire is nothing to take a chance on. HTH.

 

I plan on using fieldstone on the fireplace after I am done. Would the Class X 5/8" drywall be sufficient to allow it's use? Also, I am pretty certain that the masonry wall is not load bearing, but how can I be completely sure?

Thanks...

 

With the fieldstone, the drywall isn't really an issue, regular 1/2" will be fine to set that over.

Now as for the load bearing wall, I'd have to know a whole lot more info to begin to give you any. But I'm taking it that this is in a basement, I think there's framed wall behind that brick, but that fireplace wall is exterior? Yeah more details me thinks, and time to call it a night. Can you get an insights from the previous owners or your realtor, was this originally finished out like this or has it been finished or remodeled? Post back.

 

Thanks for the response. No, it is not in a basement, the home is on a slab. Basically one wall of the den is brick with a fireplace in the middle. Going up in the attic I have seen that the only part that comes through the ceiling is the fireplace/chimney. The other masonry stops at the ceiling. This "feature" is original to the house and the house was built in the early 70's. If you take a look at the 3 pictures in my original post you might get a better idea of what I am trying to describe.

Thanks for the help!