Hi
Would like to widen this chimney by half a brick each side, as you can see at the top the gather starts and goes off to the right and in the room above the chimney breast is only about a foot wide and is offset to the right of this. If I put a lintel in the front skin (it's single skin front) I'd like to take out the side return of the original opening so I can widen it by half a brick each side. I've seen mention of having to put little metal lintels to support the bottom of the gather but I doubt this is going to help here, it will be lined to take a woodburner.
I'm not sure what I'll find when I try and open up the sides after installing the lintel but I'm pretty confident a lintel in the front skin will suffice here, but any advice particularly if I'm being stupid is appreciated as always.
Cheers
John
Would like to widen this chimney by half a brick each side, as you can see at the top the gather starts and goes off to the right and in the room above the chimney breast is only about a foot wide and is offset to the right of this. If I put a lintel in the front skin (it's single skin front) I'd like to take out the side return of the original opening so I can widen it by half a brick each side. I've seen mention of having to put little metal lintels to support the bottom of the gather but I doubt this is going to help here, it will be lined to take a woodburner.
I'm not sure what I'll find when I try and open up the sides after installing the lintel but I'm pretty confident a lintel in the front skin will suffice here, but any advice particularly if I'm being stupid is appreciated as always.
Cheers
John