Knocking through the chimney breast - air-brick?

[onlymechris]

The previous owners of our house removed the gas fire in the lounge and plastered over where the gas fire was. They got British Gas in to ensure that it was done properly, but tas a consequence of such there is basically an air brick in the wall - which we have covered with a sofa chair. However we now want to make a feature of the chimney breast/fire place area but not necesarily put in a gas fire - we would be quite happy to cut into the chimney breast and plaster an inward box and put something decorative in there. This will mean taking away the air brick - can you forsee this causing a problem? To be perfectly honest I would be enlightened if someone could tell me how important it is to have the airbrick there and why?

Thanks in advance.
Chris

 

[TexMex]

The airbrick is to allow ventilation of the chimney. Without it you would end up with a stagnant column of air. (An ideal environment to collect damp, and, in due course, rot).

If you're knocking a dirty great opening in the front of the chimney breast, you will no longer need the air brick. A fireplace opening (or any similar opening) allows far more ventilation than a single air brick. The air brick is the minimum that you need to leave open. If you have a whole that is larger, no problem.

 

[onlymechris]

Thanks for that.

I'm planning to knock/cut into the wall and plaster up a rectangular 'inlet' as a feature to where the fireplace was/should be (probably put something decorative or contempory in there) - seeing that I will be sealing it up again (by plaster boarding the 'inlet') I guess I will still need some form of ventilation still? Perhaps if I did this at the top of my boxed 'inlet' so that it cant be seen?

 

[TexMex]

If you create your "boxing" without any top, that would be fine.

BTW. Be careful what you knock out though. You only want to knock out whatever has been used to fill in the original opening. Don't go removing any of the original brickwork unless you're certain it's safe.