Fitting new inset fireplace

Hi

I've currently got an early 1930's house with a brick built chimney breast that hasn't been altered in any way. I currently have a standard gas fire with surround & hearth, which I'm going to have disconnected & capped off by a CORGI fitter.

I'm going for a modern electric one thats inset in to the wall with a surround on the outside. This would be mounted slightly higher up than the current cut out, so is it just a case of chopping the bricks out to the required size and fitting a lintel in place or is there a bit more to it than that? I'm just not sure what I'm going to come across, on the face of it it looks relatively easy but I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to come across any surprises or have to notify building regs?

Thanks

Yes its relativly straight forward so long as you dont go to wide. If its a standard fire then all should be ok although a picture would help.

You will probably find a steel band has been used to form an arch that is quite high up. Usually you will find a lintel has already been fitted below this. If that is the case, its simply a case of either highering or lowering the lintel to suite the required opening.

You may have to knock out the arch, but you wont know untill you knock some of the plaster off.

You can see the old arch in this picture of one i did for a customer. The steel band was removed in order to raise the lintel a little and 2 courses of bricks raised the height.



Dont forget electric fires require the opening to be borded top, back and sides to stop **** dropping into the fire, and allow the required air space to draw air.

The requirements will be in your instructions

Thanks for your reply! This is a pic of mine with proposed cut out, not to scale

When you mentioned the boarding, generally what kind of timber / boarding would you use? Is there a certain distance it has to be mounted away from the fireplace?

Just line the opening with 12.5mm plaster board not forgetting the chimney opening.

Most fires draw air from the front sides then push the heated air from the top front of the fire. Your instructions will give a measurement that you will have to allow for air circulation.

Dont worry to much.

You should be fine knocking out the brickwork for those measurements but dont forget to add another 25mm at the side to allow for the thicknes of the plaster board.

think i have a piccie of the finished fire somewhere ??

will post it if i can find it