Knocking out a bricked up fireplace

[LyndseyP]

Hi,

We're currently refurbing our first house, which is early 1900's semi.

Every room has a fireplace and every fireplace has been bricked up. None of them have air bricks or vents installed.

We're looking to open them all up one by one while we're doing each room up. We won't be having fires in any but the reception rooms.

I've knocked the plaster layer and cement layer off of the one in our back bedroom and uncovered the brickwork.

Can anyone tell me what the next step is? Do I just bash out a few bricks or tentatively chip one out to have a look?

This one is probably the most complex as it has had bits gouged out of the brickwork where sockets had been installed. Am I right in thinking the arch/upward bricks are the support structure (instead of a lintel)? In which case, am I stupid to try and open this up myself, do I need a builder to come and do something structural (we're on a £0 budget)?

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Usually you just knock out the bricks. They're just filling the old hole up, not supporting anything. Yes, the arch provides the support.
Everything you need to know is here! http://www.stovefittersmanual.co.uk/articles/opening-up-a-fireplace/

So you want to open all the fireplaces, but only put one fire in? What will go in the others?

 

[LyndseyP]

Apologies, photos didn't want to attach via phone.

 

[LyndseyP]

Hi Gerry,
I read the stove fitters doc last week before i started and it was talking about lintels and as i couldn't see one i was put off actually knocking anything out in case there wasn't enough support in place to hold up the chimney breast.

We're being quite tentative (well the OH more than me, I'm the destructive one) as everything was bodged by the previous owner so we're never quite sure what we're going to find.

The plan is to have a log burner in the front reception room, the back will have a reclaimed cast iron fireplace put in in place of the gas fire that is currently in, but there's no intention to actually have an open fire in it.

All of the upstairs rooms will have the fireplaces opened up and reclaimed cast iron fireplaces fitted, but again no intention of ever lighting a fire in them. So in essence, we want to open up the fireplace holes, but not necessary to put the whole thing+chimney back into use. Depending on availability of suitable fire surrounds the back bedroom might end up just having the hole plastered out and a vent in the top.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Yours is only a little hole- no problem excavating that.
See about two thirds of the way down the page I linked to:

"Take more plaster off and you’ll hopefully see the lintel or arch above the opening.
Note that the back, left and right sides of the builder’s opening will be vertical and flat if made of brick: no interlocking brickwork (similar with stone but a little less easy to define). The non-interlocking of the bricks or stone helps define the edges.

Your first job in any excavation is to find your supporting arch or lintel. The arch/lintel holds up the wall above the builder’s opening and there should be one (they can be missing or damaged).

With brick properties I am happy to do a certain amount of excavation in order to find the arch/lintel. Bricks are very good at providing their own structural strength and the whole wall is not going to collapse because of a metre wide hole. It is possible for a few loose bricks to fall though so take care (look inside the recess with a hard hat and goggles).

With a stone or slate/rubble type property always find the lintel/arch before making anything other than a small hole. Stone/rubble does not lock together as well as brick and should be treated with great care."

 

[LyndseyP]

Sounds good, thanks Gerry!

I might uncover a different fireplace and knock that out first. The fact that the bricks in the arch of this one have been chipped out worries me as I have no idea how thick they were to begin with/whats left of them and if they're down to a cm or so it might be a bit dodgy :S The chimney breast below has been removed and a range put into it (no building regs approval, assurances that there's a RSJ in, but I wouldn't put money on it given the state of some of the stuff we've uncovered), so potentially nothing shoring it up from below either.

 

[LyndseyP]

Argh! Secondary conundrum, if anyone can help with it.

The fireplace pictured above is in our back bedroom, above the kitchen, where the previous owner removed the front wall of the chimney breast to put in a range cooker. They assured us it had had an RSJ installed and out solicitor, being the helpful sexist he was, ignored my concerns about building regs approval and suggested we should take their word on it or my boyfriend should go and look if i needed reassurance (he isn't a builder/structural engineer and didn't know building regs even existed....).

Having pulled off the brickwork/skirting etc, I now find that the front of the chimney breast is floating, entirely unsupported. Obviously, it's tied into the sides of the chimney breast so not entirely unsupported, but this is a worry, right?

Is my only option to call in the professionals and have an RSJ put in?

Suffice to say, I haven't knocked any of the bricks out of the fireplace for fear of it causing the whole stack to collapse! Instead, I've moved on to a different fire, which looks fine to knock out, although the chimney isn't capped (again, assured they all were...) so we need to do that.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

I now find that the front of the chimney breast is floating, entirely unsupported.

Are you saying the sides of the breast are still supported, i.e. they continue down into the kitchen and were never removed? If that is the case then I don't see a problem.

 

[LyndseyP]

Yep, the sides and back continue down into the kitchen/ground, i think. It's just the front wall that ends above floor level that I can so far.

I've attached an old picture of the kitchen (from the listing), however, and it dear I'm going to find that the right hand side of the chimney breast isn't supported either as the opening in the kitchen is much bigger than the chimney breast/there's no alcove to the right.

I wondered why there wasn't a hearth showing (we have a concrete hearth in front of every other bricked up fireplace), but as it goes it was because they'd removed it along with everything below it.

 

[LyndseyP]

Sorry, forgot to attach!

 

[LyndseyP]

And this is the listing picture of the upstairs room just for comparison...

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Are you sure there isn't an RSJ in that boxed-in bit above the extractor?

 

[LyndseyP]

It sounds pretty empty when you knock on it. If there is something in there, which there may be, it doesn't have anything between that and the chimney breast above :S

 

[Gerrydelasel]

It sounds pretty empty when you knock on it. If there is something in there, which there may be, it doesn't have anything between that and the chimney breast above :S

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. It's probably only stuck to the brick in a few places.

 

[LyndseyP]

I'll pull up a couple of floorboard and have a dig around. Thanks, you've put my mind at rest a bit, I expected for the wall to go solidly down to whatever support had been put in so just assumed they hadn't bothered (the house is full of bizarre bodges).