Renovating an old Victorian fireplace

[Faron]

Hi there, my very first post!
Right, I'm taking apart an old fireplace, and was wondering how much of the internal brick work I can safely remove? Obviously I'll leave the arch, sides and metal support arch alone but ideally wanted to empty the rest internally, any advice gratefully received

IMG_20220331_164750520_HDR

• Faron
• 4 Apr 2022

Fireplace 2

IMG_20220328_155651034_HDR

• Faron
• 4 Apr 2022

Fireplace 1

 

[tell80]

Caution is needed - dont remove any brickwork without knowing how, higher up, the flue is supported, and exactly if the back wall we see at the back of the opening is the same wall we can see in the room? You can measure back?

Faron why not google "fireplaces & flue diagrams"? It will give you a visual idea of whats what.

Forgot to mention that the gas pipe and restrictor need to be dealt with by a GaseSafe.

 

[Faron]

Caution is needed - dont remove any brickwork without knowing how, higher up, the flue is supported, and exactly if the back wall we see at the back of the opening is the same wall we can see in the room? You can measure back?

Faron why not google "fireplaces & flue diagrams"? It will give you a visual idea of whats what.

Forgot to mention that the gas pipe and restrictor need to be dealt with by a GaseSafe.

The flue is a weird one. I have two adjacent rooms whose flues go diagonally towards each other and meet at the chimney stack at the top. So I'm thinking they must be supported all the way up if they're not vertical.

 

[tell80]

What you are looking at, with diagonal chimney breasts that meet in the loft or die in the stack, is not what I'm referring to. Ignore them ref this thread.

What I mean by higher up is Just above the fireplace there's the flue gather (as its sometimes called) - and I obviously cant see how its been constructed and supported.
Perhaps the internal brickwork is supporting it? Have a look and pic it.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Gas pipework needs capping off correctly by a Gas Safe engineer with immediate effect. I'm not sure how you've currently isolated it, but given the work you are carrying out, but regardless of that it appears you have an open ended gas pipe, which is illegal, gas isolated or not, it must be correctly capped.

Once that is done, you should be fine to remove the loose brickwork either side in the Builders opening.