Good evening and thanks for providing this forum. Here goes..
The house is circa 1750? 2" high bricks. 2x Chimneys, one each end gable were added in 1830-50 with 2 3/4 to 3" brick. Wherever Victorian brick has been added, the original brick has been removed every foot or so to tooth the newer brick to the original. All is good. But the largest fireplace is the one that we have exposed first. It was covered in cedar cladding because the last owner was obviously overwhelmed by what he saw. That was 40 yrs ago.
The fireplace is GF, 5' wide and has a slightly arched brick lintel at 5' high. It is brick filled and I would estimate at 1910. The infill is the strongest part of the opening and I am not prepared to remove it until a solution is found. There might be a range behind it?
Both sides of the arch are single skin brick. Prior to 1910, the arch has failed and an additional single skin was added to the left to contain the weight of the chimney breast.
The left cheek has been butchered as a result of adding pipework to a back boiler at some time. The front left cheek is no more than a column of half bricks to 3' height. They are currently in support since removing the plaster.
The plan so far is to leave the infill intact and to (starting from the left and replicating on the right) is to replace the single skin with a single skin with return or a double skin? This would start from the base and ultimately support the arch with more confidence. I would like to use lime. When up to arch, I would like to rebed the arch with new mortar and then to tackle the brickwork above. There is another smaller fireplace above. Hearth seems good. The problem of what, if any range, might exist can be dealt with once the infill is removed?
We would like to remove any range and to fit a multi fuel wood burner to the fireplace, flued.
Any suggestions, advise, etc would be very gratefully received. Thank you.
The house is circa 1750? 2" high bricks. 2x Chimneys, one each end gable were added in 1830-50 with 2 3/4 to 3" brick. Wherever Victorian brick has been added, the original brick has been removed every foot or so to tooth the newer brick to the original. All is good. But the largest fireplace is the one that we have exposed first. It was covered in cedar cladding because the last owner was obviously overwhelmed by what he saw. That was 40 yrs ago.
The fireplace is GF, 5' wide and has a slightly arched brick lintel at 5' high. It is brick filled and I would estimate at 1910. The infill is the strongest part of the opening and I am not prepared to remove it until a solution is found. There might be a range behind it?
Both sides of the arch are single skin brick. Prior to 1910, the arch has failed and an additional single skin was added to the left to contain the weight of the chimney breast.
The left cheek has been butchered as a result of adding pipework to a back boiler at some time. The front left cheek is no more than a column of half bricks to 3' height. They are currently in support since removing the plaster.
The plan so far is to leave the infill intact and to (starting from the left and replicating on the right) is to replace the single skin with a single skin with return or a double skin? This would start from the base and ultimately support the arch with more confidence. I would like to use lime. When up to arch, I would like to rebed the arch with new mortar and then to tackle the brickwork above. There is another smaller fireplace above. Hearth seems good. The problem of what, if any range, might exist can be dealt with once the infill is removed?
We would like to remove any range and to fit a multi fuel wood burner to the fireplace, flued.
Any suggestions, advise, etc would be very gratefully received. Thank you.
