Opening up fireplace...!

[Pevster]

Hi all,

First post so hello! My place is about 150 years old I think and as part of renovating it I've opened up the fireplace in the lounge and hope to get a woodburner into the opening eventually. All's good so far ; I've taken out the breezeblocks and exposed whats there. When cutting into the breezeblocks with a grinder & cutting disc the dust cleared massively quickly after exposing the flue so I'm guessing it still works well

The part I need to figure out is how much I can open it further. I'd like a larger opening to be able to recess the wood burner but not sure how far I can open. Here's how it looks so far :

Untitled

• Pevster
• 18 Mar 2010
• 1

Untitled

• Pevster
• 18 Mar 2010
• 1

Sorry that they're tricky to see! If you stick your head up the opening above here is much wider and deeper (the section above the fireback tapers out) so Im guessing that I can probably remove the fireback and the misc brickwork up to the width of the arch and the stone either side (which is what the building and hence the chimney brest) is made from. My current plan is to start on the exposed mortar and look to see if I can expose what's internal and what's part of the chimney brest... Any advice though? I'm tempted to call a structural engineer for advice but balked at spending £300 for the 15 minutes of sucking their teeth!

Cheers all,

~Pev

 

[Eldodgerino]

Pev,

excellent little project. Wood burners are fantastic and can't recommend them enough.

Its difficult to see from the pics - just ensure that arch is supported!

For regs you'll need a 6" air gap around the wood burner.

Dodge

 

[Pevster]

Weeeeell... With the current fireback in place and a 6" gap either side, that make space for a woodburner around, er, 1/8" wide Hope there's some more width to be had!

Cheers,

~Pev

 

[nickjb]

Have you spoken to the local authority regarding building regs?

 

[Pevster]

Well, I rang them and they said if just opening it up again then building regs arent applicable. If I need to put in a lintel to widen it then I'm very sure they would be! I'm hoping just to remove the fill back to its original state...

Cheers,

~Pev

 

[stuart45]

If you are installing a wood burner Building Regs will apply, unless a HETAS engineer is used.

 

[Pevster]

Oh sure, Will use one for the install - just trying to get the space opened up for it so I can get on with important stuff like plastering, painting, flooring and so on The actual installation is quite a while away after I'll be able to live in my house again!

~Pev

 

[stuart45]

A fire place normally has a large builders opening with either 9 or 13 innh brick jambs at either side and the rest is just infill which can be removed.
This pic may help.
I can't quite make out exactly how yours is built from the photo, but it looks like the arch and most of the infill and fire back will need to be removed.

View media item 16306 View media item 16307

 

[Nige F]

That arch looks like it is almost un supported at the left side If you`d said a brick chimney breast - I wouldn`t be too worried, because they tend to only let a certain number of bricks fall -then form a self supporting triangle But , stone you said - I`d carefully get some plaster off the breast and see what`s going on above that arch.

 

[tamz]

As Nige says to arch is not supported by much at the left and if you start hacking out below it it may fall. Strip off the plaster up the wall more and check what the stone/brickwork is like. Stone walls can fall quite easily.
I would be inclined to insert a type C concrete lintel about 1500mm long above the arch to make sure nothing falls. Let it set then you can safely open it up a bit and rebuild another arch if you like as the existing one does not look too healthy anyway.
Maybe you should repost this in the building section.