Buttering

[Doodle]

Hi,

Can someone explain to me what buttering actually is and how to do it. We have a interior chimney made up of small pieces of stone which are quite dark and the cement inbetween is grim looking. Someone suggested buttering the whole lot. is this a good idea or does someone out there have a better one?

thanks in advance..........Nigs

[Gyn_Paul]

I alway understood 'buttering' to be the process of applying mortar to

the ends of bricks (or blocks) to adequately fill the vertical space

between the brick (or block) in your hand and the one you have just

laid.

Also the larding of mortar mixture around a hole or a single stone to fill a hole.

What is being suggested for your chimney sounds rather more like a render coat.

Do you mean the exterior faces of an internal chimney, or the interior of a chimney ?

Certainly if you can access the inside of a chimney without recourse to

the insertion of a small boy, and can easily apply a mortar course, you

will increase the draw of the chimney, and minimise the amount of tar

leaching through the brick/stonework to the inside. That being said,

it's a buggr to get anything to stick to the black, tarry surface of an

old chimney.

p