Cracked Stone Fireplace Lintel advice

[Kathshere21]

Hi there,

We've just removed our fire place as we're fitting a wood burning stove.. the house is around 1920 and the old stone lintel has cracked..

Does it need replaced or is it easy enough to repair?

We had planned to just replace it but a mate said we could just brace it, the crack goes the whole way through.

Any ideas are very welcome

Trying to keep costs down as best we can by doing the work ourselves. I've added a link below to my Google drive with images

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1Oa6zqETWc2emgzMGJaNm96RWM

 

[Doggit]

Sorry, but neither picture is that clear. But if the crack goes right through, then it should be replace, so how good are your bricklaying skills. You'll knock out the lintel, and a few bricks will drop from above it. Replace the lintel, and then relay the bricks above it. You'll find that a few pieces of slate will push the brick back in place to allow the final pointing to be done.

 

[Blagard]

As Doggit has said just replace the lintel - Essentially it only supports a triangle of brickwork directly over the opening and even then most of them will stay in place. No fear of any major collapse. To neatly slot in bricks afterwards is an aquired technique but if you are going to plaster afterwards then no worries about the neatness just do your best.

For removing just use a drill into the mortar joints, so the lintel can literally slide out

 

[Kathshere21]

Thanks so much for the replies!!!
Really helpful.. good to know the whole thing won't collapse..
Bricklaying skills are non existent but always wanted to give it a bash.
Hoping to give it ago on Monday

 

[Doggit]

If it's getting plastered over afterwards, the quality (or lack) of your work, will never be seen. We all started somewhere.