HOW TO BRING A OLD AND TIRED FIREPLACE TO HER FORMER GLORY

I’m not a professional restorer, I’m just a normal person who likes cleaning and bringing things back to their former glory.

A friend of mine just moved into an old house that has beautiful old cast iron fireplaces but the poor things have been neglected for a couple of years, so she asked me if I could help.

I remember that a long, long time ago, I used to look after a beautiful old Victorian house that had amazing cast iron fireplaces, so after a bit of research I found the cream that I used to use in order to keep the fireplaces shiny and beautiful.

So here we go.

VERY IMPORTANT, NEVER CLEAN THE FIREPLACE WHEN THE IRON IS STILL HOT

Do not wear anything you are very attached to it, it can get a bit messy and dirty.

Read any instructions on the cream you chose and make sure is not inflammable (the last thing you want is to set the fireplace on fire).

STEP 1 - Have a good look at the fireplace and see if you are confident enough to do the job. If you see that the fireplace is damaged, my advice is to call a professional to repair it first and then follow his/hers instructions.


Materials that you should have

- Protective gloves and mask - Hard brush - Lots of clean old soft cloths - Soft floor brush - 2 old soft shoe brushes - Product of your choice to clean the fireplace ( I used Zebraline)

Ok here we go

STEP 2 - With the soft floor brush, go around the fireplace removing spider webs and dust from it

STEP 3 - With a hard brush and very gently working in circles go around, losing up the rust you can see (be careful not to overdo it) and in the end give another good dust with a soft cloth.

Now is were the messy bit starts

STEP 4 - Put a bit of cream into a cloth and moving in circles apply it to the fireplace. Do a little at a time. It is a job that requires patience and time. What I do is: I put a bit of cream, apply it to the fireplace and polish and so on. Cream, apply, polish and so on.

STEP 5 - As the fireplace has embossed decorations cast into it, I used a soft shoe brush using the same process( cream, apply, polish). -Apply a bit of cream into the brush and working in circles I keep applying the cream,( cream, apply, polish) until I’m happy with it. Then, with a dry shoe brush, I give a good polish and at the end with a very soft cloth, I go over it again polishing one last time.

FROM THIS TO THIS

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