Here we go with my first post...
I recently bought a real step back in time in the form of a late Victorian end terraced house (1892). Aside from new electrics, part central heating and loft insulation, everything else is/was original.
I'm currently turning the scullery into a modern day kitchen (whilst being respectful of features, of course) and my focus right now is on the chimney, which is part of an end wall. Wanting to place a 1000mm range cooker within it, I've removed the original plaster from the chimney breast. Underneath, I've discovered that while the bricks to the left of the opening are one face wide, those to the right are just one end wide; this being so that an internal door could be positioned next to the chimney to allow access to a small ground floor laundry room.
The opening in the chimney is just a tad short for accomodating said range cooker so what I want to know is, considering the right hand side of the chimney has been supported by end wide bricks for 120 years without any signs of stress, can the face wide brickwork be reduced to end wide too?
There is a brick arch in the breast which I'd like to replace with a pre-stressed reinforced concrete lintel; the lintel spanning right across the breast. Would the lintel resting on end wide bricks be satisfactory?
I recently bought a real step back in time in the form of a late Victorian end terraced house (1892). Aside from new electrics, part central heating and loft insulation, everything else is/was original.
I'm currently turning the scullery into a modern day kitchen (whilst being respectful of features, of course) and my focus right now is on the chimney, which is part of an end wall. Wanting to place a 1000mm range cooker within it, I've removed the original plaster from the chimney breast. Underneath, I've discovered that while the bricks to the left of the opening are one face wide, those to the right are just one end wide; this being so that an internal door could be positioned next to the chimney to allow access to a small ground floor laundry room.
The opening in the chimney is just a tad short for accomodating said range cooker so what I want to know is, considering the right hand side of the chimney has been supported by end wide bricks for 120 years without any signs of stress, can the face wide brickwork be reduced to end wide too?
There is a brick arch in the breast which I'd like to replace with a pre-stressed reinforced concrete lintel; the lintel spanning right across the breast. Would the lintel resting on end wide bricks be satisfactory?
