Fix burns on fireplace?!

weeclick

Hi all

Just before christmas we decided to start burning candles as a way of saving electric not needing to use lamps as much! We had set 3 small candles on a ledge between the "fire" and the start of the oak fireplace above. All of a sudden all 3 canldes (2 more so than the last) decided to reach to heights Ive never seen a candle do before and burnt the bottom panel of the fireplace! It was only a matter of a few minutes before we spotted it so thankfully damaged is limited to 3 "candle wick" shapes!

We originally called the company who our landlord bought the fireplace from - the manufacture of our fireplace is no longer operating and so the only option he can give us it to fix the burns himself costing around £150 - even at that he cant promise it will be fixed and worst case scenario being that we need a new surround costing £450!

Just wondered if anyone at all knows of a more cost effective way of repairing burns on wood? Happy to try anything!!

tony6403

Do you know if it's solid oak or oak veneer?
You can tell by looking at the short ends where if it is solid oak you will see end grain like in the photo below

rustyboy21

If it is solid timber as poster above asks, you should be able to take the surround off the wall, stand it on it's mantel and lightly sand out any charring. You can get coloured furniture wax to try and stain it back to near it's original colour.

If it is veneered, it will be harder to sort, but even a little light sanding or using fine wire woll, will take off some of the charring.

£150 for repair? Could buy a replacement for that price. Any pics of the damage?

weeclick

Thanks for your replies so far - it is solid wood so hopefully thats a better scenario!

Heres a pic of what the burns look like

rustyboy21

weeclick wrote: »

Thanks for your replies so far - it is solid wood so hopefully thats a better scenario!

Heres a pic of what the burns look like

Sure you wern't using flame throwers ? lol

I would try some very fine wire woll lightly at first, a lot of that could just be surface charring.

At the end of the day, you could try anything, as if it doesn't work, you will still end up with our ladlord taking it away and getting it fixed at a price. A french polisher would charge a bomb too if you got them in. Does look like it is burnt at the bottom though, so don't think you will get that out very well.

Have a go lightly at first, then try some wet n dry and see if that helps. This stuff below, is the only polish I use on my solid oak surround at home. Be careful choosing the colours though, go shade lighter as the wood can take on the colour a bit darker than it looks on tin.

http://www.briwax.co.uk/pdfs/Briwax_Brochure_2005_low.pdf

Round about £6.50 a tin

weeclick

thanks very much for your help I will definitely give it a go!

tony6403

Having looked at your pic. you could , if sanding doesn't remove the marks , veneer over the whole damaged section. It comes pre-glued and is ironed on. Would cost about £17 .