Last month while I was in the city, I purchased a cheap sand blasting gun with the intention of cleaning up the rock face. While I was buying the gun, I asked about blasting media. I was told that they had glass beads, plastic beads, walnut shells, and sand, all of which were priced about $1 or more per pound. Why in the world I would buy sand when I live at the coast is a big mystery, so I bailed out on the media and picked up a couple of buckets of beach sand from the dune behind the grocery store.
Personal protection for this project is a load of gear. I wear a partial face respirator with dual HEPA filters to block out the silica dust from the sand, the house dust released from the cleaning, and the cement dust from the grout that is eroded during the process.
Over the respirator, I wear a painter's hood to keep stray sand out of my hair. Over the top of this, I wear a plastic face shield. Of course, tight-fitting clothes, and gloves are required. Even with all of this, I have to stop every 15 - 20 minutes to wash the face shield and my glasses, as everything fogs up with very fine dust.
Anyhow, a few hours of work later, I had half the fireplace face cleaned up nicely. The sand blaster did a terrific job quickly scouring off the encrusted dirt and black tinge that the slate had taken on. Once the filth was removed, the veins and grain of the rock was visible, and each piece of slate took on a character of it's own.
Here's a photo of things taken this morning when I had half the job done:
This afternoon I completed the rest of the face down to the hearth level. A couple of days more part-time work and I should have the whole mess cleaned up and ready to spray with some masonry sealer.
In order to keep the flying sand out of everything else in the house, I had to build a 2x4 and plastic tent to contain the grains:
By this winter, I hope to have the living room ready to use, with my Vermont Castings Intrepid wood stove installed to heat the room. The previous owners had destroyed the smoke shelf in the chimney in order to put in the chimney liner, so this fireplace will never be useful for an open fire again. As such, I'll likely use some of the excess slate that is out in the yard to "brick up" the hearth opening to keep drafts out and seal up the yawning opening to a more pleasant rock backing for the stove.
