Fireplace advise ?

[AAA999]

Hi
I'm renovating my 1950s fireplace in a cast concrete property. Having removed the decorative bricks and the fires concrete fireback I'm left with a single course of bricks at the rear laid Infront of the cast concrete back. In the top section the seems to be another casting (possibly a lintel?) However it doesn't seems to be tied into to the main structural casting/housing, it was actually sitting on the concrete fireback which has now been removed.

Anyone know if this is in fact a lintel or maybe be something else? I'm concerned now I've removed the fireback it's effectively floating, albeit the rear is possibly sitting the course of bricks.

I'm planning on over boarding the lot just to tidy it all up, then skim or apply slip bricks, but unsure if there anything structural to be addressed first?

 

[blup]

Difficult to tell, it may be that the very narrow width means the brickwork above is self supporting. You could wedge/bodge a couple of pieces of timber underneath and use to fix plasterboard to.

 

[AAA999]

Hi thanks for the reply.

There are no bricks, house is cast concrete construction. So I'm guessing this isn't a lintel and some kind of precast forma fixed to the throat of the chimney breast? (maybe to provide a heat/fire resistance?), it's got me stumped.

The fireplace opening is really narrow so I was hoping to dot a dap board straight to masonry ,so don't think timber frame/support isnt an option to provide bearing.

Ideally I'd remove the bricks at the back too, to provide some more depth, but this is the only thing supporting the precast forma it looks like.