Chimney Breast issues

[jimmies78]

Hi,

We have just bought a house and this is the first one that 'needs' a bit of work....nothing major (hopefully) but alot of reasonable work

I started today by starting the job of removing the wallpaper in the back room and soon found out that plaster on the chimney breast had blown out in a couple of places

No bother I thought as one of the options we had discussed was to go back to the red brick on this breast anyway

Currently there is a wood burner set into a tiled surround - the surround to be eventually removed and the burner kept

After getting back to the bricks - I noticed one brick in particular was loose...ish and the mortar was in bad condition in places. You may also notice that the bricks half way up are neat and the mortar good, then the bricks get un-even and the mortar not as neat.....not sure what is going on here????

I was thinking that a solution would be to re-point where needed and to remove and re-seat the bricks that are loose one at a time

Are these of the thoughts of a total amateur? and what would you wiser heads have to say to put me right?

thanks in advance for and advice and help

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 4 Jan 2014
• 1

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 4 Jan 2014
• 1

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 4 Jan 2014
• 1

[/img]

 

[Blagard]

I notice that there appears to be a triangle of bricks that have dropped slightly from the rest. This is not that uncommon where a lintel over the fireplace opening has been disturbed or where a steel bar acting as a lintel has given way a little. In short I would investigate the lintel behind the surround and ensure it is sound and then rebuild in one operation the triangle of brickwork that the lintel actually supports

Untitled

• Blagard
• 4 Jan 2014
• 1

Edit: In case you are confused, I thought I would explain that the area I marked is all that the fireplace lintel actually supports so brickwork in the whole triangle can be taken out in one go and rebuilt onto the lintel without need for temporary supports or to do one brick at a time

 

[jimmies78]

Thanks for the reply - that makes sense

I've taken out the wood burner and the surround is just made of block it seems, a chisel down the back of it and I can pull it free of the breast. This will come down once I have made some space for the rubble in the garage - then I can see what's going on behind

may have to find a bricky soonish I fear

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 5 Jan 2014
• 1

The loose brick came out real easy! - the shiney thing is the liner for the woodburner

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 5 Jan 2014
• 1

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 5 Jan 2014
• 1

 

[jimmies78]

if taking out this lintel or bricks for repair would I be ok to do this with just one acro and strongboy? I'd be happy to do the work - but will get a bricky in if needed

 

[jimmies78]

Blagard....just noticed your edit - I was unsure if it would be advised to remove the lintel without supports......I wonder if my heart could take it! would it really be OK?

 

[Blagard]

If the lintel is sound you would be able to remove what I marked

If you need to remove the lintel itself it could extend even wider so I would want to see is that the lintel is not the full width of the chimney breast and that you have a full brick length at either end of the lintel so if/when you remove the loose brickwork there remains a column of brick at least one full brick length wide at each side when viewed from the front.

I have redrawn to show what should be safe to remove on another of your pictures below. But not more than that so keep inside of the lines ignore the fireplace surround and imagine the lines are actually on the bricks behind.

What you should see is the line angled to follow what is a half brick overhang on each course on each side until the lines meet higher up.

Untitled

• Blagard
• 5 Jan 2014
• 1

 

[saladdays]

jimmies78, my chimney breast is the same width as yours. I recentlly opened it up and removed net 90 bricks and installed five new lintels. I didn't use a prop! My house was built in 1987, yours looks older. Pictures: //www.diynot.com/forums/your-projects/opening-up-a-fireplace-and-installing-a-stove.379469/

Also look at this with regards to lintels and props: http://www.woodburners.com/installations/opening-up-and-building-fireplaces.html

 

[Blagard]

Really good example from saladdays making full use of the chimney breast space. No problem with that lintel of his going another half brick into the sides, but if you plan on doing similar I think you need to tidy up the brickwork on the right hand side first where it has probably been knocked about by the pipework routes. Also I only marked on the second picture what I thought looked loose. You could probably take yours higher as well.

 

[jimmies78]

cheers,

my house is a 1930's - I will post some more pics when I have the surround down....hopefully today

 

[jimmies78]

my plan is to leave it all the same size as the existing burner is a good one in good condition. It is a cassette type that just slides into the void.

Just going to leave the bricks exposed and tidy the pointing up

 

[jimmies78]

the surround is off....made of a single piece of concrete! It looks like the original fireplace was larger....then it was reduced. If this was the case then there is no sign of an older larger lintel. What would be the recommendation to sort this out?

cheers

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 6 Jan 2014
• 1

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 6 Jan 2014
• 1

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 6 Jan 2014
• 1

Untitled

• jimmies78
• 6 Jan 2014
• 1

 

[Blagard]

If you don't want to see a concrete lintel I would suggest a steel angle lintel
as the example linked, but otherwise as saladays own example but with the smaller opening.

http://www.travisperkins.co.uk/p/ca...lintel-standard-duty-ang-900mm/270828/3893468

 

[jimmies78]

after seeing the current state of things the wife is wanting to get a brickie in as I've not do this before

what sort of outlay would I be looking at getting this sorted to a level that no longer needs brickwork work

I'm in Yorkshire