Opening up an old fireplace – corbelling query

[417welly]

Hi all. I’m opening up a fireplace to install a wood burner

I’ve done this a couple of times before and found it reasonable easy to identify the original builders opening, what is infill and what is structural corbelling

However, this time I’m struggling a bit. You can see from the pics how far I’ve got so far. At first look, my initial though was that the outer 2 brick courses at the sides of the opening would be the original opening and that the inner 2 courses are infill to support the lintel (which I thought was probably not original)

I’m now a bit confused. Inside the opening just above lintel the opening corbels in / gathers from both sides and I can’t understand if the inner two courses are in fact structural and supporting the corbelling (of if they may have just been built up to meet the corbelling which possibly continues to the outer 2 courses??)


In a nutshell, the opening at the moment is too narrow for log burner and I need to know if / how I can safely widen further?

Perhaps I’m just out of luck and this is in fact the original builders opening which can’t be widened?

Hopefully this will make sense when looking at photos below

Any help will be much appreciated

 

[tell80]

417welly Hi,

Before doing anything else you need to select the appliance and take the Mfr's required installation dimensions. You must work to the Mfr's dimensions for the fireplace opening.

At the moment the c/breast looks a bit ramshackle, & might do with partial rebuilding to your Appliance dimensions?
Wait & see where you are going before tackling the "corbelling" issue - its simple to deal with.

 

[417welly]

Thanks for the reply tel80

sorry, should have said in the original post, i'm not too fussy about the stove so don't have my mind set on an exact model.
My thoughts were to tackle it the other way round and select a stove to suit the size of opening that i eventually end up with.
The one thing i would like to achieve is for the stove to be set within the opening rather than sat on a hearth in front of it.

As things stand the opening is only just over 40 cm wide and just less than 70 cm tall which is too small to give me any stove options in the 8kw region. If i could safely remove the inner courses to leave the side pillars 2 courses thick then i'm sure that would be wide enough to give me plenty of options

Maybe i'm being over cautious but i'm not confident in removing anything further, without some guidance. Good to hear that the corbelling is relatiivly simple to deal with, what i'm really after is the nuts and bolts of how?

 

[mrrusty]

Looking at the corbelling inside the chimney I think that is the original build.

 

[417welly]

Yes, mrrusty it looks undisturbed and a bit to neat to be infill so i'm thinking i may well be back to original opening already.
Question remains can anyone help regarding if / how can i go about widening or am i just going to have to live with it?

 

[jamieshinna]

Yes, mrrusty it looks undisturbed and a bit to neat to be infill so i'm thinking i may well be back to original opening already.
Question remains can anyone help regarding if / how can i go about widening or am i just going to have to live with it?

Hi I think I'm in the same position as you were, could you tell me if you went ahead with this and how you got on. Thanks