Fireplace fender wall infill damp

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Hi,

I have a old fireplace in the kitchen that has rising damp around the bottom of the chimney breast on both sides. I had a damp specialist have a look a while ago, and they said that they would take the plaster back to brick about 1.3 meters above the damp area and inject a damp proof coarse into the brick around the ground level.

I decided that I will try and get to the root of the issue instead of covering it up with a chemical damp proof.

So I noticed that the fender wall infill for the hearth looked to be dirt as well as hardcore, and started to take out the hearth and see were the damp is coming from. I now see that the infill of the hearth is mainly dirt, and this seems to be bringing up damp from the ground to the wall plaster.

I have started to remove the infill, is this safe to remove all of the infill without compromising the fireplace structure? it looks like the middle inside the fireplace is just infill rubble as well, I was expecting it to be brick to the ground for all of the chimney breast. see photos attached.

I was going to remove all of the infill, including under the fireplace, then put down DPC and fill it in with clean hardcore or bricks, then re-lay the concrete hearth.

Would this be the right way of doing this?

Thanks in advance.
 

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I forgot to say in my last post the circled areas in the photos is where damp areas are.

I have cleared out more of the infill of the fender wall. But I am weary of taking out the rubble from under the back hearth. Do I need to remove the fireback, back hearth? It also looks like the fireplace opening has been resized smaller, as there are bricks put in on each side that are not supported by the original stepped footing of the jambs, would I need to remove these as well?

New photos attached.
 

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How did you conclude this problem Mat? The structure looks identical to my Victorian Terrace, ie, no damp proof course to be seen in the walls and quite scary seeing brick stepped foundations layed direct to earth.The only attempt at one is a couple of lays of what looks like 12mm thick terracotta tile layed where a modern DPC would be. Pretty useless as a DPC as terracotta isn't waterproof. The enemy of damp in these houses is airflow, which is critical to suspended wooden floors and stopping rot and damp.

In answer to your questions, which I'm sure you've sorted by now, is yes, those extra bricks are to narrow the fireplace and not part of the structural Jambs. The jambs and area between define the original 'builders opening'.
Re Damp injection, well you'll get various opinions on here about them and 'rising damp'. Before injection it's wise to investigate everything to see where damp may be coming from and rectify. In a lot of cases it's not 'rising damp' at all. In the case of these Victorian houses good air flow and ventilation was the principle applied. The houses needed to 'breathe' and lime plaster and mortar on the walls helped facilitate this. Any damp in the walls was allowed to evaporate out. Covering these walls with modern sand/cement screeds locks the moisture in. Blocked air-bricks and original builders rubble and earth stopping good air flow under my floor was the culprit in rotting the timber wall plates on the sleeper walls and joist ends. Be handy to hear what you did in the end.
 
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If you consider it, back in the day the original builder did not require to insert a DPC or DPM, indeed in the day a DPM or DPC would be lead impregnated bituminous felt.

Why no consideration of inserting a DPM / DPC?

Simple, it was a fireplace, and who in Georgian / Victorian days could imagine Gas fired Central heating, King Coal was supreme, and a roaring fire generating loads of heat would decimate a felt based DPM / DPC. even lead would have had some difficulty in surviving?

OK a very, very old O/P post but?
 

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