Removing my fireplace - whats this?

[LeadFarmer]

Im wanting to remove my fireplace, ready for a new one to be fitted. But when taking the surround away Ive discovered the tiles on the chimney breast are actually fitted to a concrete block on the chimney wall.

Should I remove this concrete block, and will it break away easily or bring half the chimney breast down with it?

 

[Jackrae]

That concrete "block" is the actual fire surround and will probably be fixed to the wall by screws fitted into small plates currently buried in the plaster. I suggest you cut away the plaster about 1" (25mm) all round the concrete and somewhere around the surround you'll discover the fixing plates.

Just a comment but what a waste of a beautiful fire place.

 

[LeadFarmer]

That concrete "block" is the actual fire surround and will probably be fixed to the wall by screws fitted into small plates currently buried in the plaster. I suggest you cut away the plaster about 1" (25mm) all round the concrete and somewhere around the surround you'll discover the fixing plates.

Just a comment but what a waste of a beautiful fire place.

Thanks for the reply. Ive disliked that fireplace for ages, but now I'm removing it Im beginning to like it more. Maybe I could leave the tiled areas and instead just replace the dark woof surround?

Any idea what era that style of fireplace is from? Its a 1930's house but I assumed it was perhaps a newish fireplace thats trying to look old?

 

[foxhole]

Tiled hearths were popular from the 30's right up to the 60's it is made to imitate an earlier style where the picture tiles would have been in a sleeve either side of the opening.

This is a modern version aiming to resemble the Edwardian fireplace.
http://www.castfireplaces.co.uk/fir...-tiled-insert-and-oak-howard-wooden-fireplace

I don't think yours is removable the concrete would have been formed and tiled in situ.

 

[Jackrae]

Fire places were (and probably still are) a "fashion" item and readily changeable. It's my impression that when these fire places were made, the tiles were laid flat in a mould and the concrete poured in along with some wire reinforcing. The result was a homogeneous unit with tiles and concrete bonded together as one. The finished "goal-post" was then simply fixed to a brick-work chimney breast. At least that's how the several ones that my parents had during my child-hood years (1950s +) were fitted.

 

[LeadFarmer]

Im in a conundrum. If I remove it and later find out its an original 1930's feature then id be sad to lose it. But if I keep it when really its just a modern 1990's replica then id wished id removed it. As much as I don't like this fireplace, I'm a big fan of keeping original features.

 

[Dave54]

That wallpaper looks at least 1950s to me. Could be wrong of course. Sometimes (rarely) there's a pattern number or even a date printed on the edge somewhere.

Jackrae's right. That's exactly how they were made. A mate of mine had a job making them in the 60s, and he told me how it was done.

Someone somewhere on the web will be able to tell you how old the tiles are I'd have thought.

 

[Alastairreid]

What a waste of a lovely fireplace and surround! the slab should lever off with a crowbar....personally i would refit the existing surround and hope there has been no damage done.

 

[LeadFarmer]

I removed it without any damage. It would be nice to know how old or recent it all is. Not sure theres a way of finding out though.

 

[Dave54]

Try asking one of the bigger museums. They'll either have an expert or know one. I've generally found them helpful in the past.

 

[m0t]

I removed one of those from my living room the other week, be warned that the concrete was very very heavy. We had to break it into pieces on the living room floor and it was full of steel.

I would have liked the original wooden fireplace surround (like yours) but it had been removed in the fifties (judging by the newspapers we found stuffed behind the plaster). The concrete had been retiled with foul tiles and the plaster around had been badly patched in so it all head to be taken off.

 

[Flyboytim]

I think the surround is from the 1960s, when the clean air acts led to people replacing their original cast iron or enameled coal grates with gas or electric fires. The tiles of the hearth base have never been baked with a real fire. It reproduces an art noveau style as in late Victorian and Edwardian houses (2&3 in the link below). The flat metal (chrome or stainless?) seal/frame for the fire itself gives it away.

The 1930 hearths would have been art deco - wholly tiled with a prominent symmetric geometric motif with rounded edges and corners to the tiles in all probability (1 in the link below).

http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/sites/default/files/images/fire3.jpg