Help identifying object in chimney breast

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Hello all,

I'm starting a Sound-proofing project on the third floor party walls (two bedrooms - each with two alcoves and one chimney breast) at my house, and considering how to prepare the walls ahead of fitting a clip-to-wall system.

Currently both chimney breasts have been bricked-up and plastered over.

All would be well and good, however, one complication is a weird bracket/stud/thing that protrudes out at the top of the chimney breast in the front bedroom.

Chimney.jpg


Does anybody here what it is?

No evidence of it in the loft and the material appears to be stone/concrete.

All help appreciated.
 
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Is this where the chimney breast used to be or is this sticking out from the chimney breast?
 
Hey Lower,

Thanks for look. It's protruding out from the chimney breast.

My loft is partially plaster boarded so investigating from within there is proving difficult.
 
How old is your house? Any idea when it was built? Brick or stone or breeze block? Is part of your house built onto another, older structure?
Is there any chance that this room is actually an extension or a conversion of some type?

I've seen supports like that but only on the exterior of really old buildings, or inside holding up something structural. Taking a look in the loft will help to identify if it's holding up something important. There might be a an old beam from it going to the top of the roof.

If there's no beam then it might be supporting a floor joist, but that would be unusual. Is your roof original to the house? If the house's been re-roofed at some point, then that support beam might be gone.
 
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What's above it? Attic? Roof? And what material is it? We have a similar thing in our attic room where a stone "lump" sticks out of the chimney breast just below ceiling level and disappears beneath the plasterboard. In our case it's a corbel stone and it carries the roof ridge, so it's rather necessary. There may be something above yours which is being carried by that - I doubt a builder would just install it for the hell of it
 
The boxing is rotting away - so somehow damp is an issue?
The age of the property might also be an issue?
Dropping a camera down the flue from the chimney stack on the roof might help?
FWIW: you shouldn't have large inaccessible spaces in a loft - why not cut an access in the plasterboard?
 
Not sure if it helps but when i ripped the floors up in my 1950's house, a concrete slab had been formed in between two (Extra thick) wooden joists to make a hearth for the fire places in the upstairs bedrooms. each weighed at least 300kgs so it seemed very odd to have them supported on wooden joists. I know this was from new too as the builders had placed a number of 1950's coins under the floor boards but on top of the joists, possibly as some sort of good luck symbol?
Is that a small hearth for disused fire place upstairs?
 
The only problem is, that isn't like the underside of any hearth I've ever seen. When they are cast in situ in concrete there will inevitably be planking beneath the concrete (or the remnants of it - after all, why waste effort ripping something out which will never be seen by anyone), and in any case the underside of the cast concrete will be flat, not shaped.
 

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