How to board up a chimney breast fire place

[Adam78]

I have the following chimney breast and fireplace. I want to remove all these 70's dated grey brick design around the fire place, get rid of that electric heater and board up the fireplace.

This chimney breast is on the party wall side of a 1930's semi.

How would you go about this. Do I knock out those grey bricks and then just plaster board across the fireplace or do I batten around the fireplace opening and plasterboard just the opening?

Do I need to use any special type of plasterboard?

Do I need to place a vent on the plasterboard for airflow?

Will I have to knock off the timber corner beads of the chimney breast...ideally I'd prefer to keep them?

I need to ensure I don't get salts forming around this chimney stack after boarding the opening creating damp issues?

Any advice tips appreciated.

 

[ree]

OP,
Have the flue swept.
Remove the rug, & cover the floor with plastic sheeting or similar dust sheets.
Have any elec or gas isolated & removed.
Wear gloves & goggles for everything.
Use your knife to cut the paint/plaster seal all around the decorative brick fireplace and mantle outline.
Stay well away from the corner beads.
Prise up the timber mantle pieces - easy does it until you know how they are fixed.
Start by lightly hammering in a brick chisel/bolster into the top bed course starting at a corner.
Slowly make course by course removal down to any lintels - lift out any lintels.
Remove all debris as you go - dont work in it or over it.

If you have a large demolition steel or long masonry chisel or similar then drive it under a corner of the hearth and lever up the hearth chunk by chunk.

Brick or block up the fireplace opening while inserting a hit-and-miss vent.
The flue terminal on the stack should be for a redundant flue ventilation.