Messed up chimney breast brickwork (with pics)

[AndersonC]

'Breast' and 'pics' in the same title!!

Ripped out a shoddy 60's style tiled fireplace shown in pic 1 to find a right mess of brickwork behind it

So now I've got the joy of tidying all that up to enable me to fit a new fireback!! And a lot of the bricks in the arch area are loose.

 

[oilman]

Right, see the arch? carefully remove everything below it that is obviously the filler for the tiled fireplace. Then repost when you have a tidy hole.

 

[AndersonC]

Oilman

Thanks for this advice, I must stress (stress now there's a convenient word) though that the brickwork comprising the arch itself is loose, and am worried that the arch will fall in as well as some of the loose bricks above it.

You can see some of the gaps between the bricks in the second pic.

Thanks again
Anderson

Edit: I won't do anything until the chimney has been swept either else there's gonna be soot all over the place.

 

[numpty with a crowbar]

Ooof - brings back "happy" memories of my own fireplace traumas

It's amazing what can lurk behind an old fire - most of it enough to give you sleepless nights.. Can I suggest that you hot-foot it down to the local hire shop and get a couple of strongboy sapports and a couple of steel props - rake out a pair of joints about 3/4 courses above the arch or top course of loose bricks, hammer the strong boys into the wall and get the props up. This will stop the whole thing coming down. Once the wall is supported you can start removing the crap brickwork / loose bricks. Then get a nice solid concrete lintel fitted, once you fit that and brick up to the level of the old bricks, you can remove the wall supports, point up the raked joints and rest easy...

 

[AndyBill]

why dont you just remove the whole chimney breast ,
unless you are thinking of using the fireplace of course

 

[AndersonC]

We're going to be putting an open fire back in there - better to sit round on a cold winter's evening than a bloody TV set!!

 

[barnetboy]

Get your mates round, crack a few beers and play the ultimate game of Jenga!

 

[AndyBill]

We're going to be putting an open fire back in there - better to sit round on a cold winter's evening than a b****y TV set!!

but you cant watch match of the day on a fire!

 

[n3il.h]

but you cant watch match of the day on a fire!

Yeah thank god