Fireplace Widening

[williamglossop]

Hi all

Im looking to have a glass fronted hole in wall fire installed (Gazco Riva2) and Im trying to prepare the hole

There is a relativley small area of brick that I need to remove and im looking for the quickest and simplest way to remove it.....without affecting the structure

Ive posted a series of pics that will hopefully show the section i need to remove.

Is it possible to just angle grind the section highlighted in red out????

Its the bottom 100mm of the gather....

 

[Mr Chibs]

It doesn't look like there is a lintel in there, although two courses of bricks up there are some metal strips, could be flat or angle iron, if it's angle iron, this I would guess is your lintel.

You could just grind off the noggin, but you could really do with checking if the brickwork above is staggered before you take off this noggin, as the block above could drop (unlikely if mortar is good) the brick in the fireplace centre in your 1st pic appears to only be held in by mortar, so this may drop down, when you start banging around.

I'd remove some of the bricks below the metalwork and replace with small concrete lintel and brick-up the gap, you know it's done then.

If in doubt you could knock off the paster on the fireplace face, above the noggin you want to remove, take a pic, post and I'm sure you'll get more replies.

 

[williamglossop]

Hi

Thanks for your reply. Believe it or not there is a floorboard being used as a lintel two courses above (in front pic). I'm going to remove these two course and fit a concrete lintel but that will only take care of the facing brickwork.

 

[Mr Chibs]

Hahaha

Think the same guy worked on my house.

It will probably only be 1 brick thick on the front, the sides more. measure the opening + 100mm each side for the lintel bearing... Wickes usually have a good range of smaller ones.

 

[Doggit]

Can you take off the fire surround first, as that'll make the job easier. It'll also mean that you can hack off some of the plaster around where you trying to work, and get a better idea of why that block is in there. It may be that you can take the block out, support the brick above where the lintel is going to go, and then do the job properly, but also easily. I think you're trying to be a bit neat and economical, but that'll make the job more difficult.

 

[williamglossop]

Thanks for the replies

The surround has been removed, I just stood it back in it's original position so it was outta the way. I've taken more of the plaster off too. I'm not bothered about making a mess and I'm happy to throw some money at it.... just looking for the easiest way to widen it.

 

[Doggit]

Well done, that's a good realistic approach. Chimney and bricks are easy to deal with; even if the bricks above the lintel come lose, there's not a lot that's going to come loose.. You can put a piece of wood up under the lintel, and wedge it in place, than take out the bricks to the side to get the opening you want, and then start to rebuild, and get the arch into place. Then if any bricks have dropped above it, you just fit them back in place. You'll want a few bits of a slate tile for wedging the bricks up at various points, but the jobs fairly straight forward.