Anybody have first hand experience cleaning soot off brick?

I am in the middle of a full kitchen/family room tear out so down to subfloor and surrounding walls are not finished. This must be the best time to try something even if its drastic.

Fireplace is floor to ceiling and about 70" wide with a thick mantle, built in 1961, its kind of a reddish pink brick and above the mantle is several shades lighter than below, especially above the firebox. On the advice of an experienced chimney sweep I added a 6" smoke guard about 7 years ago. That greatly improved the draft and eliminated the rolling smoke so I'm just hoping to clean the previous discoloration.

No successful experience--but we were trying to clean a heavier buildup than you have.

I'm interested to see if there are solutions. Good luck.

A pressure washer and soap will do the job. If you're in the middle of a remodel it sounds worse than it is. I've seen it done once. It's all about the prep. Cover the floor, walls and ceiling with plastic and mask along the brick. When I saw it done they took 1"x2" boards, wrapped the edge of the plastic around them a couple times and screwed them thru the drywall into the studs along the edges to hold the plastic in place.

Once you have it well masked off one person operates the pressure washer while another operates a wet dry vac sucking the water up off the floor.

Beam update/question

I posted a while back about a project involving the removal a small wall that contained two support posts that was in the center of a 25 ft span.

The plan was to remove the wall and insert a beam across the entire 25 ft. The only options that were presented to us were putting in a steel beam or a wood beam. We decided to go with wood.

So now we're in the middle of the project and they tore open the ceiling. They are somewhat surprised to find that there is already a thick beam that goes across the entire span. And it looks about the size of the beam that the engineers said we needed. So the engineers come back look at the beam do some calculations and the determine that the beam is just not quite thick enough, so we will need to put the new wood beam in.

At this point they have to build a temporary support to use while switching beams. This need to be approved by the city inspector. Inspector comes in and says, "This existing beam looks pretty damn solid, are you sure you need to replace it, why not just reinforce it?".

So project manager says that sounds good and way easier than switching beams. It will also be cheaper than swapping beams.

So here is the part I don't get. The method for reinforcing (which engineers are working on) it is to place a thin steel beam (about 2") and just bolting it under the wood beam. However the steel beam does not have to be supported by the posts. It just gets stuck to the bottom of the beam.

That just seems weird to me and it doesn't really seem like it will help a lot. According to project manager, the idea is that the current beam is strong enough to carry the load, but the support posts in the center were to prevent it from sagging in the middle. If a steel beam is just attached to the undersurface of the existing beam, that will have the same effect (prevents deforming in the middle).

Still seems weird. Anyone have any experience with this stuff and have any thoughts? This whole thing needs to be inspected and presumably it won't pass if it's not going to work.

I'm surprised they didn't recommend a steel flitch plate on one, or both sides, of the existing beam as opposed to putting a steel beam underneath it. Do the joists hang on the sides of the beam, or sit on top? Is the new beam that's gong to be attached underneath going to effect your ceiling height?

It seems to me that, given the current beam is nearly big enough, it's lees about the risk of the beam sagging and more about deflection under live load (you'd be able to feel the floor bounce a little while getting it on in the room above).

When I was in college, we lived in an old shotgun house to which someone had added a second floor pair of bedrooms at one point. One bedroom was over a dividing wall, and was fine. The other bedroom was entirely over the living room and had no support. When we were watching TV, we could track our roommate walking across the floor of her bedroom by the dips in the living room ceiling.

Then she got a boyfriend. When they were getting it on, the living room ceiling dipped so much that I was afraid the hanging light fixture was going to hit someone in the head. She was rather chagrined when we all applauded when they were finished.

If I understand you correctly, that would make more sense to me. With this method do the flitch plates rest on the posts?

Not sure. I'll see if I can figure it out. What effect does the answer have on the proposed solution

Well the replacement beam was going to hang down 4 inches (only way to get no change would have been to get the more expensive steel beam). We were OK with that. With the new plan it will only hang down 2 inches.

I think he did say something about deflection, but I didn't really understand it.

Shocked they didn't do a check on this before design s/.

The steel plate acts as a stiffiner, and goes on the bottom of the beam and bolted into the beam. You will not believe how much reinforcement that adds.



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How would they check without tearing up the ceiling to see that a beam was there?

That's reassuring, because I'm clearly having a hard time believing it. So you're saying there is a lot of additional reinforcement even if the plate itselff doesn't rest on the posts at each end.

1. It doesn't really matter whether the flitch plates (or the added beam) rest on the posts. The purpose of either solution is to increase the rigidity in the center of the span.

2. If the joists butt up to the beam (using joist hangers on the beam to support them) then adding flitch plates would be more work than adding a beam underneath. If the joists rest on top of the beam then adding flitch plates is a very simple solution.

It's easy enough to tell; does the beam that's there now hang down below the rest of the ceiling or is it flush inside the ceiling?

3. .

4. Deflection is simply how much the floor would bounce up and down if you went into the room above and did the deed, or jumped up and down.

What they're saying is the beam is strong enough that you don't have to worry about the house falling down, but they are worried that if you jump up and down upstairs the floor will have a little bit of bounce.

They're going to eliminate the possible bounce by making the beam more rigid in the center where it's most susceptible to bowing under a heavy load. It doesn't matter if the new beam rests on the posts because if you went upstairs and jumped up and down near the end of the beam it's not going to bounce.

[/QUOTE]Oh i dunno, a hammer and nail and a little patching material can do wonders, especially when you know its going to be removed.

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I would also think steel on the sides would be the obvious answer, but I'm assuming the joists must take up too much of the room on the sides. I don't know how the steel on the bottom would help make it much stronger lengthwise. 2" is pretty thick though, so probably does the trick.

Thanks. That's all very helpful.

The situation is pretty much as you guessed. Per the project manager the joists are on the sides with hangers so plates on the sides would be a lot more work whereas plate/beam on the bottom is very easy.

Right now the engineers are deciding between steel beam on the bottom (most likely) or maybe another beam right next to existing beam. I'm not sure what posts the additional beam would rest on. I suppose I'll look into that if that becomes the preferred solution.

Fwiw, the beam on the bottom is the easiest solution then. That said, adding an additional beam, or flitch plates to one side of the beam is still boing to be (should be) less expensive than your original plan to replace the beam.

The benefit is that you wouldn't have any extra beam hanging down at all.

As with the beam on the bottom, or flitch plates on the side, if you add an additional beam on one side it is not necessary that any of them rest on a post.

eta:

After giving it an extra minute of thought it seems highly possible that adding a wood beam alongside would be the cheapest route (even though they'll have to cut and reattach the joists). It's certainly the most preferable from a finished product standpoint.

Thanks. I suppose I was subconsciously thinking (for no good reason) that the steel beam on the bottom would be stronger, but I agree that if they both work, then the extra beam is probably better because ceiling height will remain unchanged.

Those are oddly specific things to do with the four hours you are offering. Is there an additional charge for your services if, for instance, I would like to go to a museum instead?

I have a split level house built in 1968. I've started to notice a burnt plastic smell in the afternoons in the family room on the lower level which is adjacent to the laundry room. The only other place I've smelt it is in the hallway outside of the family room. I never smell it in the evening/night. I've already tried unplugging all electronics in the room. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Definitely think about getting an electrical expert over to locate it

Sounds like something is shorted out, either an appliance or an outlet or possibly a fixture.

Unplugging all the electronics at the same time won't likely help.

Doing them one at a time might, but that also could be the time it starts a fire.

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A first step would be, when you notice the smell, go around to every outlet and switch and smell it to see if it is coming from any of them. Even could be coming from a light since behind every light/outlet/switch is several wires in a box that if they somehow are touching or close to touching could short out. Definitely call an electrician. It could be nothing serious, but it very well could be something that isn't enough to trip a breaker, but will potentially start your house on fire.

Was anything new installed recently (within the last year) where a wall was cut into or anything?

Quite likely if it were an electrical problem it's nothing that could ever trip a breaker (not overcurrent). Could just be a bad connection (bad connections get worse over time) and arcing.

(that's why there are all the insanely expensive arc fault breakers now)

I was only thinking if you were running something drawing hard on a 20A breaker but had 14ga wires possibly. I see this a lot where ppl keep tripping a 15 so they just up it to a 20 not knowing the risk. IDK much more than that, but I suppose 14ga wire can probably handle 20A without starting a fire.

For sure that could cause problems. 14 awg is rated for 15 amps and shouldn't be on a 20 amp breaker (as I think you know). Not many things actually draw 20 amps for long periods of time though. That could happen if someone did something stupid, like put a big air conditioner on a small circuit - even a window AC on 14 awg or something. IRL I think it mostly happens on old houses where there have been additions and it turns out 3/4ths of the house is on one circuit - and this isn't *that* rare.

If it's just normal use of lights and low power stuff, it's often a loose wirenut somewhere. This isn't my general type of work (I am an electrical contractor though), but almost every time I've seen something burned up it's been at a terminal or wire nut that I think was probably badly made up in the first place and got worse over time.

Does anyone here have good outdoor multi-colored led spotlights they can vouch for?

Was looking hard at philips lily, but many reviews say it isn’t very bright at all, and obviously it is expensive for a pack of 3 ($325)

The other brands look like hot garbage too in my google searches thus far...

Recently purchased a new home that has a fireplace.

I've literally never owned or operated a fireplace in my life.

Am I safe to use it without getting my chimney swept out first?

We have some cold weather coming, and it would be nice to burn the small amount of firewood I have.

Get it inspected at least, maybe cleaned.