Living room chimney breast

[Andydawn10171]

This is our 1st post on here, so bear with us!!

We have just purchased a mid terraced property, & are really wanting to make a statement of our chimney breast, so andy decided to take hammer & chisel & bash away at the plaster 2 see what was lurking underneath.......

As you can see from the photo, it's 1 hell of a mess/bodge job (so I think).

Anyway, the questions we have are...... Do we need a lintel & can we possibly go deeper into the breast or is that as far as we can go?

I'll try & upload some pics ASAP.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Lets have the picture and a proper answer can be given.
Normally you will find a lintel in place supporting the hole made for the fire.
Depending on age of property and type, the lintel will vary in size and position. This will then determine whether the hole can be made bigger, without any more structural work being done.

 

[Andydawn10171]

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• Andydawn10171
• 4 Aug 2011
• 1

 

[Andydawn10171]

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• Andydawn10171
• 4 Aug 2011
• 1

Finally figured it out, hope these give you some insight, will also post a photo of the actual hole itself, for opinions on whether we can go deeper into the breast.

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• Andydawn10171
• 4 Aug 2011
• 1

Thanks.

 

[tim00]

look at post from : specialk july 12 2011, and research this subject on this site. there's plenty of info and pics. Dont go any deeper into your fire opening, the wall at the back is a party wall.

 

[xr4x4]

Dunno about deeper, but you can go higher.

That arch 11 courses up was the original lintel for the fireplace.

 

[SpecialK]

Measure the outside depth of your chimney breast then measure the fireplace depth, its possible it was packed out with bricks for the gas fire?

What are you planning to do with it?