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It's just someone's opinion, ultimately I am responsible for my actions and decisions. You are also some random stranger on the internet! ;)

Thanks... I think you're right about the jambs... It looks like the front 200mm of the chimney breast on the ground floor isn't load bearing from the above, but the back 200mm certainly is. This picture of a party wall chimney breast hopefully illustrates what I mean. Additionally, if you look...

That's a good tip - thanks.

I was planning on going the DIY route and documenting everything as I go, then either a HETAS engineer could sign it off or the local council will for £250. I just went upstairs and checked and the joists aren't resting on the chimney breast, there's about a 20mm gap between the two. Well it...

That makes sense, thanks for the info. This is where it all started. I did have a HETAS engineer come and assess the work, but he wasn't interested because of some of the complexities. One of which is overhead power cables running close to the property, so he couldn't get a cherry picker up to...

We're thinking along similar lines... I've just had a really good look up the chimney and I hadn't noticed this before, but the liner is partially supported by slate sat on top of the lintel and just under the edge of the terracotta liner at the front of the breast. I expected it to be steel...

I've taken the floor up in the bathroom above the fireplace and you can see the step between the ground floor breast and the 1st floor breast. I did consider drilling an exploratory hole and shoving an endoscope in there... but it's just going to be full of bricks right?

That's the plan... it's a cold house and with a fire, 80% of the heat goes up the chimney... a wood burner only lets 20% up the chimney. My original plan was to stitch these 2 bars underneath the liner from just above the lintel with some GP11. The bars were going to sit on the back leaf of...

It would be great if it's possible... I don't mind the amount of work and mess it makes, I just need it to be safe - so whatever it takes really. How do I find out how to do this?

It looks the same way to me... as in not tied into the jambs. The ultimate question is are the bricks there to fill a void or are they structural to support the 200mm chimney breast on floor 1 and 2. I live near Peterborough. Yes I would say I have roughly 230mm at the back of the chimney before...

The light was just right, so I cleaned up the bricks near the gather and took a photo. Does this picture shed any light on the construction?

Then it's useless to me and I may as well brick it up... I need to explore this from every angle I can before that becomes the ultimate answer. :cry:

It's the back wall of bricks I want to remove more than anything... to provide me with more depth. The width can stay as it is if necessary.

ChatGPT is annoying... the measurements on the earlier picture were correct in terms of chimney breast width. They are - Ground floor - 1250mm 1st floor - 1020mm 2nd floor - 890mm The liner does go into the party wall. Weirdly I used to own the house next door (semi-dettached) and their...

It's difficult to get ChatGPT to demonstrate the difference in depth... the measurements in the picture are correct, but the way ChatGPT has presented it is wrong... so this is just for illustration really. The depth on floors 1 and 2 are only 200mm and on the ground floor it's 450mm. The width...

Thanks for sharing your experience... I'm prepared to abandon the idea of widening the opening... but I still need to understand how I can safely remove that back row of bricks to make it deeper. I had one installer come out and he didn't like the look of it I think, but he was really helpful...

:LOL:

It is 3 stories high... I asked ChatGPT to produce what the whole stack looks like. It does step back to 200mm on floors 1 and 2, where it's 450mm on the ground floor. I hear your concern... " Are you planning to spit-roast a pig?" :LOL: As mentioned... altering the width is desirable, but...

It just seems to be cement...

Point taken on the acrows thanks. 3ft does seem to be average acceptable width where you don't need one... Yeah the gather is the main issue really. Altering the width is desirable but optional... altering the depth is essential, because I can't feed a flue between a wood burner and the...