Bricking up or plasterboarding a fireplace.

[Siggles]

I have opened up my fire place. I had to do it to remove the awful surround and hearth that was there before. It has left a large hole as there was a back boiler in there. Now I need to close off the hole somehow so that I can put an electric fire and surround up against the wall.

The brick surrounding the hole is clinker bricks, almost impossible to screw anything in to. I bought some plaster board yesterday with the idea of using 'No more Nails' but the pboard will not sit flush and I would not trust it will keep the pboard on the wall or hold the new fire in place.

I thought about some battoning inside the hole to screw the plasterboard to (as well as using no more nails) but not sure how to do that (any ideas?) or brick it up but that might still leave the problem of screwing the new surround to something if it is bigger than the new bricks.

Here are some pics. Any advice given is appreciated. Thanks

http://www.siggles.co.uk/dsc00010.jpg
http://www.siggles.co.uk/dsc00011.jpg
http://www.siggles.co.uk/dsc00012.jpg

 

[Chud]

OK - I'm not a builder but here's what I'd suggest...

get some (solvent) gripfill - forget nmn

clean the top and bottom (front) of the fireplace and use gripfill to bond in a piece of 2"x2" (minimum) at the top and bottom of the opening. so that the front is recessed enough to allow your plasterboard to sit flush with the existing plasterwork.

Then take some more 2x2 and cut just slightly long to fit in the gap between the top an bottom 2x2's - you should need to use a hammer to get these vertical - gripfill and screw these in place - you should now have a frame on which you can fix your plasterboard. depending on the thickness of your plaster and the board you have bought you may be able to cut the board to fit to the existing plaster margin or so that it sits inside the fireplace opening.

Having said this depending on the surround etc you are going to be using for the new fire this may be unnecessary as the new surround may 'bridge' the opening.

Don't forget to allow ventilation to the closed in fireplace also!