Opening up chimney breast

[daveymartin]

We are in the process of moving in to our new home and the living room has a bricked up chimney breast in it.

We have a 9mth old baby and would like to maximize floor space - so an idea we had was to put a "hole-in-wall" fire in, with a cut out above that for sky box/dvd player, then above that another hole for the tv...

would it be a case of stripping the chimney breast and moving the original lintel to above where the tv would be? would I only need the one?

Untitled

• daveymartin
• 16 Nov 2013
• 1

just to clarify, I wont be carrying the work out myself, I'd employ a builder for the job, just curious to know what is involved...

Thanks

 

[Newboy]

I suspect that you'd probably need a new sky box & TV quite quickly!

Even if you could find a way of protecting the electronics from rising heat both externally and within the breast, I can't see that you would have enough depth in the breast to mount allow for the depth of the skybox etc (DVD?) and all supply and interconnects.

 

[daveymartin]

thanks for your reply newboy, i'm not 100% certain of the depth of the chimney breast so i't may be that it's no good...

one possible option would be to install some kind of shelf extruding from the wall enough for the sky box/dvd player to sit on... might only be 10cm - i imagine there may need to be some sort of surround for the fire too to allow the depth so it shouldn't look too odd.

as for the heat problems... i'm not sure, i've just seen similar setups while looking on google images so thought there must be some sort of heat prevention in place.... i will have to do some more research!

it might be irrelevant but it's the electric fires we're looking at, preferably one that can be inset into the wall also

 

[Newboy]

Electric fire - that changes a few things!

No need for the flue for a start!

My instinct would be to stud out from the existing chimney breast - much less expensive/a lot less mess/no need for "structural" work.

If I were you I'd have a look for the bits you want to install and see how much clearance is needed - I've seen quite a few similar installations and quite a few heat damaged bits of kit!

There a quite a few "for effect only" type of fire which don't produce any significant heat - pretty but useless!

Just a thought - as your little person gets more mobile, I assume that you will end up with some sort of guard around the fire to prevent some nasty accident.

 

[daveymartin]

thanks for your reply newboy!

I did see the electric fires with the effect only setting.... certainly a viable option as the room has felt warm on visiting the house... but saying that we had just gone in from outside and had coats on.... so not really the best way to tell!

the stud wall idea sounds interesting, yes been looking at guards, although i'm now thinking if the room is warm enough it might be better wthout the fire there at all... certainly a better viewing angle for the tv!

 

[CaptainCaveman289]

Definately get a guard,
if you should allow a child to die by absence of a fireguard there will be a ten pound fine.
















(according to my 1920's home owners guide...)

 

[daveymartin]

Blimey! Can't afford a £10 fine!!

We have decided it may be more cost effective and energy efficient to install a radiator below the bay window and utilise the space on the chimney breast beneath the tv for shelving.