Opening up fireplace

[Hennah]

Hi everyone, I've looked at some posts on this forum but wanted to confirm the thoughts in my mind with more knowledgeable people.
When I moved into my house there was an old back boiler in the breast wall of my living room. I had central heating installed, the back boiler removed and the fireplace sealed up. Due to gas pipes exiting the breast wall at an angle at the top right I had plasterboard boxing to extend the wall by around 4/5 inches.
We have decided now to open up the breast, tidy up the inside and use it just for some nestle tables.
When opening up the fireplace it seemed very narrow, I want to confirm if the bricks were added later and not part of the fireplace jamb. If this is the case I can remove the bricks on the right, board up those on the left to have the fireplace central.
The lintel seems to extend out to older bricks which I am assuming are the real jambs?
I also can't understand why the fire place seems so high up from the floor, is this likely to be easy to dig out or a big job?

 

[mrrusty]

Difficult to see the whole picture but it may well be that that lintel is not original either. I suspect if you strip all the plaster off the breast you may find another lintel or arch higher up. Can we have a pic of the the whole breast?

 

[Hennah]

It's not all stripped yet but I've attached another photo. I can see what appears to be new red brick above the lintel so I too suspect that there may be another lintel further up the wall but I don't intend on making the fireplace any taller

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Are you skinny enough to slide up the chimney (facing the room). If so do it and have a look for the original arch, it'll probably be about the height of the bottom of the telly. Or strap your phone to a stick, turn the light on, start video and push it gently up (slow enough so you can count brick courses later). All the bricks you can see at the mo are probably infills from when the back boiler was fitted

 

[Hennah]

Chimney is still blocked by a piece of board held up by those two pillars of red brick. I'm going to remove the right hand stack and the board and check. Will let you know what I find

 

[Hennah]

If I wanted to widen the fireplace past the jambs on the right hand side, how much do you think I would be looking at, at getting someone out to put in a new support?

 

[mrrusty]

I agree with @oldbutnotdead . I reckon the original opening would have sides about a foot wide and the opening prob went up about as far as the telly. In many/most victorian/edwardian houses, as I'm guessing this is, there would have been a range in the main room. The large openings in the chimney breasts would be subsequently rdeuced with infill brick

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Have a look up the chimney first, see if you can find the original arch. If it is there in good nick etc etc. then your easiest way forward may be to drop all the infill bricks out (up to the original arch) then make the space you want with cls and plasterboard.
EDIT Re opening up past the right-hand jamb- what, you mean remove the side wall of the chimney entirely? Bad idea unless you are prepared to have a support (column or post) to take the weight of the rest of the breast above your knockout point...

 

[Hennah]

Ok, I guess it won't make much of a difference if I take the rest of the plaster off at this point, I kinda regret starting it as there are capped gas pipes in the fireplace which will require a gas plumber to sort out and I can see us just having to wall the whole thing back up again.
What is CLS?
So, ideally I'm looking for a higher supporting arch which goes out wider than the bricks I've currently revealed right?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

CLS is timber, slightly smaller than UK 3 x 2, usually quite a bit cheaper. Stands for Canadian Lumber Standard I think, fine for stud walls & stuff like that. Hearth arch- i'll see if I can find the Before pics, this is the After

 

[Hennah]

Ok, thanks for all your advice you've been amazing. Another question, how thick does a support column need to be? Can I cut into the support a little? The picture attached shows a red screw driver which is where I'd need to take the opening to in order to make the fireplace appear central, the measuring tape shows where the bricks end and the plastboard boxing begins, this would give a column of about 8 inches in width, is this likely to provide enough support for the original arch? So originally support was 12-13 inches, cutting in about 4.5 inches leaving 8 inches

 

[oldbutnotdead]

The original brickwork (the side walls of the chimney) will have been the same each side, either half brick (100mm or so) or full brick (240mm or so). If you have a look behind that front wall you should see the side of the chimney, if your yellow driver is in line with that then happy days, you can ditch all that infill stuff once you've checked that the original arch is still there and in good nick

 

[Hennah]

What you can see in the pic is the side of the chimney, poor angle for the photo, which means the brick work either side is about 40cm but this can't be cut into at all?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Not necessarily, you really need to find the original arch and make sure it is there, in good nick etc.
The brickwork supporting that concrete lintel was most likely added in when the backboiler was installed. If you get the plaster off the right-hand face you should find the original side wall of the chimney.

 

[Hennah]

Oh right ok, I hope so. I got some work to do then. Thank you so much for your advice.