Repairing the Fireplace

I'm sitting in front of a blazing fire, the sort of fire we normally light in the depths of winter, with Sherpa, one of our cats, sprawled in contentment across an armchair. This fire should be hot enough, I hope, to set the special cement.

On Saturday, as I wandered around a local hardware shop looking for putty, I picked up a small tub and discovered that there exists a fireproof cement which is stable at temperatures above 1300 degrees Celsius and can be used for repairing defects in fireplaces. Our fireplace had plenty of those. I was aware of horizontal and vertical cracks that needed to be filled so I started the first part of the process: the preparatory cleaning, first with a brush and then with a ragged towel. This revealed more cracks and holes and depressions of which I had been unaware.

The surface needs to be wet so that the cement can adhere to it. I put my right hand into a disposable rubber glove and with this stuffed the cement directly from the tub into the cracks and hollows before leveling it off. It only remained to light a small fire, build it up gradually during the next four hours, and enjoy it with Sherpa in the meantime.