How To Remove River Rock Fireplace

A reader wants to update this fireplace and is looking for options. (Reader photo/Reader photo)

QOur house has a big stone-facade fireplace in the family room. Nosotros converted it to gas and now we want to update the look. We take discussed replacing the stone, covering the stone with some other product and whitewashing the stone so it looks more contemporary. There are a few places where the mortar has pulled away, leaving small cracks. What do you advise?

McLean

AIt's certainly possible to remove a rock facade, using a common cold chisel and mallet or a demolition hammer, which you can rent. But information technology would create a huge mess, so yous'd need to invest in new rock or brick or whatever covering you choose. If you're up for the challenge, this approach would permit you create just the look you want. If you wanted to brand the fireplace less dominant, you lot could even embrace part of the wall with drywall.

Short of a complete redo, there are several easier — and tidier — options that could give your family room a fresh expect. Try but one or combine them:

•Hang a large mirror or other substantial decoration to intermission up the expanse of stone.

•Pigment the stone. Semigloss white paint creates a clean wait and the well-nigh dramatic change, only whitewashing preserves some of the colour variation in the rock. If you lot're not certain which look yous want, beginning by whitewashing, considering you can always cover that with paint simply the reverse won't work: In one case yous pigment, your only easy option for changing the await is a dissimilar color of paint.

For whitewash, you want a matte wait. And then utilise white chalk paint or matte wall pigment diluted anywhere from equal parts paint and water to ane function paint to three parts water. Exam in a minor area to figure out what yous like. It will drip, so make sure the flooring is completely protected, and take a sponge or textile handy to even out the end and work it into the stone and mortar joints.

If you opt for paint, colors that people typically utilise on stone aren't limited to white. Also consider gray, beige, dark-brown and other neutrals.

•Add together a thick mantel that spans the wall, or make it only a niggling wider than the firebox. Crisp white paint would add dissimilarity if this is the only change y'all're making. If you are whitewashing or painting the rock, you might desire to leave the mantel a natural wood colour for contrast.

You lot can support a mantel with corbels, a type of subclass, or make it free-floating, held in place by long lag bolts that fit into holes drilled into the dorsum border of the mantel. (Exercise a Web search for "complimentary-floating mantel" and you volition find instructions.)

Check your local building code to make sure you don't install the mantel so close to the firebox that information technology might catch on fire. The required setback distance varies according to the depth of the mantel; a skinny mantel can be closer than one that sticks out more.

•Frame the fireplace opening to put more than accent on the firebox and less on the wall of stone. Buy a fireplace environment kit from a fireplace shop or a home center, or create your own pattern using metal, polished stone slabs, tile or woods. If you use wood, bank check the building code virtually firebox clearance.

We live in a four-story townhouse with four bathrooms. At most whatsoever given time, ane of the toilets is "running." They end and start by themselves. We keep the flushing mechanisms in proper working order, replacing when necessary. Information technology seems as if the toilets are trying to equalize pressure with each other. A plumber advised us to replace the toilets, which are 15 years old. Any other suggestions?

Alexandria

When a tank toilet runs on its own, the near common culprit is the flapper, the rubberlike slice that's supposed to seal the outlet hole at the lesser of the tank. A flapper that's old or torn, or grit that keeps the flapper from sealing, can allow water to slowly leak from the tank into the toilet bowl. Information technology happens silently, without the telltale drip you'd detect from a leak exterior the toilet. Only over time the drips add up and the affluent mechanism turns on to add together replacement water to the tank.

To exam whether this is your problem, empty a bottle of dark food coloring into the tank after it has refilled. Mix the coloring into the water and wait a few hours. If the color shows up in the toilet bowl, you've found the trouble. Clean the bottom of the flapper and the surface underneath. If that doesn't solve the problem, replace the flapper.

But considering all iv toilets take the same effect, your problem is probably more complex. The flush mechanisms might not be adjusted properly or water pressure in your habitation might be too high, perhaps deliberately so to make sure you have adequate force per unit area on the fourth flooring.

Some affluent mechanisms are very sensitive. If your toilets have floats, lower the bladder in each toilet slightly, keeping water a half inch or so below the fill line. This will proceed water from dribbling into the overflow tube, causing the valve to turn on to supplant the lost water. If your toilets don't have a float, they may have a Fluidmaster mechanism. Fluidmaster has a guide for fixing problems with its valves; at fluidmaster.com, type "ghost flushing" into the search box in the Support section.

To test whether water pressure is the upshot, you can buy a h2o-pressure level gauge for equally little every bit $ix.98 at Domicile Depot and use it to test the pressure at an outdoor hose bib. A typical standard for homes is effectually 50 to 75 psi (pounds per square inch). If the pressure is higher, you may need to add a force per unit area regulator valve, or replace or adjust the existing valve. It's typically installed adjacent to where water flows into a abode.

The all-time time to test is belatedly at night, when h2o force per unit area tends to exist highest because few people on your water primary are using water so, according to Dan Cochran, a master plumber and owner of Dwyer Plumbing in Alexandria (703-922-8220; dwyerplumbing.com). His visitor charges $69.95 for an evaluation and approximately $360 to $400 to install a pressure-reducing valve.

Given the four-story nature of your home, you might be better off just calling a plumber to evaluate your system as a whole. Kesterson Plumbing & Heating in Alexandria (703-549-3139; kestersonplumbing.com) charges $168.l per hour with a i-hour minimum for a technician and $450 or $485 to install or replace a pressure regulator valve, depending on whether the incoming pipage's bore is ¾ inch or 1 inch. Kramer & Sons Plumbing Service in Alexandria (703- 360-6400; kramerandsons
plumbing.com) charges a $59 acceleration fee, which includes travel time and diagnostics by a plumbing technician. The company gives estimates merely after the on-site visit, but installing or replacing a valve could cost $300 to $1,000, said Sadat Sheikh, the function manager.

There is i other possibility. You didn't say whether your toilets are tankless. Delany Products, which makes Coyne Delany Flushboy tankless toilets, says on its website (delanyproducts.com) that when its toilets affluent on their ain, it's oftentimes because flushing a toilet on a lower floor is siphoning water from the upper bedchamber of the valve on an upper-floor toilet. The visitor offers a replacement part chosen a non-syphon bypass that cures this. A plumber should exist able to obtain and install information technology or diagnose similar problems with toilets made by other companies.

Take a problem in your home? Transport questions to localliving@washpost.com . Put "How To" in the subject line, tell us where you lot live and try to include a photograph.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/how-to-update-a-stone-facade-fireplace/2016/01/08/65b40e3e-aa67-11e5-bff5-905b92f5f94b_story.html

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