1930's inglenook help please

[BobbyBrown]

Hi all,

I have a 1930's house which has a curved inglenook upstairs and downstairs. It looks pretty naff so I'm looking at squaring it off and getting it replastered. My question though is what is behind the curves top left and right? Is it an easy job to knock it out and make square? A new baby dictates that this can't turn into a big job

 

[ree]

Can you pull back and pic the whole wall?
Is there a chimney breast on that wall?

Typically, there's nothing structural or complicated about such a basic bit of framing, and probably plaster lath or p/board.
The fly in the ointment might be some pipes running up behind the panelling - remote but possible.

Why not expose one top corner only (ie remove the plaster) & pic and come back here?

 

[^woody^]

It will normally be corbelled bricks and gobbed up with mortar or plaster to form the radius.

If you are knocking the these off, you need to check how far the lintel goes for its bearing

 

[BobbyBrown]

Can you pull back and pic the whole wall?
Is there a chimney breast on that wall?

Typically, there's nothing structural or complicated about such a basic bit of framing, and probably plaster lath or p/board.
The fly in the ointment might be some pipes running up behind the panelling - remote but possible.

Why not expose one top corner only (ie remove the plaster) & pic and come back here?

Hi ree,

Thanks for the reply, you're exactly right, looks like a lath frame from the small amount I have knocked out of the corner. There was a fireplace at one stage but none of the three fireplaces in the property have a chimney breast, they are all located on a flat wall with the chimney breast being on the outside of the property. I've already done one fireplace here so this might give some idea as to what's behind it.

Where i've knocked through a small section of the rear inglenook I can see the membrane for the roof so it looks like the rear will have to be angled.

 

[BobbyBrown]

More pictures

 

[ree]

So your remaining c/breast(s) is located on a different wall to the inglenooks?

What's on the other side of the inglenook back wall? The old projecting chimney breast?

If you went into the loft and looked down perhaps you could see a little more of the construction?

Is the roof a hip roof at that end of the house?

I suspect that this job will be a bit more than at first i thought. As a competent DIY'er you might be taking on 40 or 50 hrs of labor.

Your previous stove installation looks great. Well done.