Widening Original Fireplace Opening

[Anthony McGuinness]

I want to widen a fireplace opening that I have revealed to accommodate a wood burning stove. The brick 'legs' of the fire place are hollow right through to next door's side of the chimney breast. What options do I have here. Please find attached photo's of fireplace.

 

[vinn]

What floor is this fireplace on?
The hollow behind the missing brick appears to be soot free - am I right?

Presuming that the RH side of the c/b is also single brick then any widening would probably need a couple of Acrow Strong Boys to provide support while a lintel is installed.

The hollow "legs" must be solidly bricked up in line with the back party wall - FWIW, I've never seen this before.

Read my (or others) recent past posts on opening up and installing appliances.

Essentially you will have to work to appliance Mfr's dimensions & have HETAS involvement.

note: remove the carpet and tack bar.

 

[Anthony McGuinness]

What floor is this fireplace on?
The hollow behind the missing brick appears to be soot free - am I right?

Presuming that the RH side of the c/b is also single brick then any widening would probably need a couple of Acrow Strong Boys to provide support while a lintel is installed.

The hollow "legs" must be solidly bricked up in line with the back party wall - FWIW, I've never seen this before.

Read my (or others) recent past posts on opening up and installing appliances.

Essentially you will have to work to appliance Mfr's dimensions & have HETAS involvement.

note: remove the carpet and tack bar.

Yes the hollow is soot free and it is on the ground floor so it can't be another flue. The fireplace is on a solid floor though the rest of the room is floor boards with a void underneath. So presumably support would need to be added where the current inner skin of bricks are, as it appears that inside 'wall' is supporting the internals of all the chimney above it. The stove fitter also said he had not seen this before and didn't know how he would tackle it.

 

[vinn]

Its no big deal to prop and install supporting brickwork and a lintel, but definitely more work involved than the typical opening up.

You have a suspended floor, and a concrete hearth that rests on packed soil inside a brick fender wall.
Your joist tails might rest in the damp soil conditions or the joisting might have been trimmed around the fender wall to keep the hearth & the suspended floor separate.
The hearth slab might extend below the whole chimney breast with all the brickwork built off it.
Look through the hollow gap and investigate.

Your flue (perhaps you also have a fireplace above on the next floor) should be swept & smoke tested - inform your neighbour of whats what.

 

[wellwhynot]

Hi Anthony.

I know you wrote this quite a while ago now but I wondered how you ended up supporting the chimney? I am in the same boat with mine, it needs widening but not sure how to go about it with the hollow legs!

Thanks!