The Story of the Chimney Breasts continues…

Once the chimney breasts had been removed, we needed to fill in the flues behind them to bring make the wall level. So what is the best way to fill these gaps? We had originally planned to fill them with concrete all the way down. However, after doing two sections of the flue it became clear that this was a huge task! To hold the concrete in place while it set we had to use big wooden shutters with props that extended across to the other side of the house.

Next we experimented with bricks, but as the gap was not wide enough to take a full brick we had to stand them on their sides and the result - although satisfactory - was not up to the high standards that we have set ourselves on the rest of the build.

In the end, the best method we found was to slap on two coats of mortar in a time-honoured Hungarian method. This filled the hole quickly and easily, giving us a beautiful smooth surface to run our insulation over.