It was a messy job but the fireplace had to be fixed. It was weeks ago we made the brace in the family room and so things were looking like this for a while.
This job required four hands so I couldn’t take any progress or technique photos.
The job was a crumbly mess.
After stuffing each crack with mortar we left things to cure for about a half hour before wiping off the bricks.
After an hour I noticed our first crack in the mortar.
We made a rookie mistake. Mortar is supposed to dry slowly to avoid cracking. And we lit a roaring fire in the wood stove.
It takes a week for things to set completely so the big test will be this weekend when we remove the bracing. If the bricks don’t fall it will be a success in our minds. Fingers crossed!
[...] a change so that we can enjoy them. They look suspiciously placed over our recent mortar project (here) but the fireplace repair was a success and the bricks are staying [...]