Opening up a Chimney Breast

[stuart45]

My son made an interesting observation tonight... the jambs don't appear to be tied into the back 200mm of the chimney breast - the courses don't line up. Which to me, suggests the jambs aren't bearing the weight of the stack. Does that sound plausible?

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I thought you already knew that, as we discussed it on Monday when you put that photo on. The back wall was probably built first as the structural wall. It's a totally different method to any chimney I've ever built, or even worked on.
If you know what model of woodburner you're getting, you can work out what clearance you need around it.
You also need to work out how to get a 600mm stove pipe connected to the liner, so extra height would help.

 

[stuart45]

Looking at the method they used to build the chimney, it's actually quite clever, because by putting the flue inside the party wall, they can still have a 9inch brick fire protection each side of the flue, so you only get a 9 inch projection into the rooms.