I have an old 1896 terraced house and am finally in a position to get some work done on it (after owning it for ten years!) I want to have a stove fitted into my chimney breast.
I have a few questions to ask prior to some quote visits...
1. Can I have the fire opened up quite high? I want as much heat as possible to come out into the room rather than up the chimney.
2. Will it be possible to then have a stone lintel put in and will that be enough to hold the weight of the chimney breast up through the house?
3. having removed some shelves, and the wooden mantelpiece, the brickwork behind (ie the actual chimney breast) looks in dire need of repointing or at least filling in gaps...there are some gaps that looked like they've been filled in with wood though it all looks pretty ancient...at the time of the build it would have had a small kitchen range in the fireplace, though all of that was removed years ago... (we found a lot of the old stone buried in the garden at the back) the house is in yorkshire and so is stone brick rather than clay brick...What is the usual practice in these situations?
4. the walls in the alcoves also seem to be plasterboard rather than brick..if I have a stove fitted, will these also have to be removed? if so, what kind of costs am I looking at?
hope some of you can advise me..
Thanks x
I have a few questions to ask prior to some quote visits...
1. Can I have the fire opened up quite high? I want as much heat as possible to come out into the room rather than up the chimney.
2. Will it be possible to then have a stone lintel put in and will that be enough to hold the weight of the chimney breast up through the house?
3. having removed some shelves, and the wooden mantelpiece, the brickwork behind (ie the actual chimney breast) looks in dire need of repointing or at least filling in gaps...there are some gaps that looked like they've been filled in with wood though it all looks pretty ancient...at the time of the build it would have had a small kitchen range in the fireplace, though all of that was removed years ago... (we found a lot of the old stone buried in the garden at the back) the house is in yorkshire and so is stone brick rather than clay brick...What is the usual practice in these situations?
4. the walls in the alcoves also seem to be plasterboard rather than brick..if I have a stove fitted, will these also have to be removed? if so, what kind of costs am I looking at?
hope some of you can advise me..
Thanks x