Morning all,

As usual most questions get answered on here, so here is one for the locost knowledge.

In our lounge there is a Fireplace that has at some stage been bricked up. Originally was an open fire, then was a back boiler, now just bricked up.

I want to open it up again, not to use as an open fire, but more for the looks. Its the only room now with the fire place bricked up and want I really want to know is, can I just remove the bricks that were used or do I need to check for a lintel, or anything else?

I removed the left overs of the back boiler from a side access panel, but that was then plastered over so can look in from the side.

Any ideas before I start removing bricks........

I will post any pics I can find later

I'd start chipping away at the plaster at about 2 - 3 foot above the floor or wherever you think the lintel should be (depending on scale of fireplace). If you find a lintel or a soldier course of bricks, go further?

That is probably the least messy / most easily repaired way to investigate.

I can't think of a reason why someone who was bricking up a fire place would take a lintel out. Unless the reason it was bricked up was that the lintel was defective in some way.

However, I'd be very tempted to put a lot of dust sheets down, and then a sheet of plywood down, cause once you start you'll want to carry on and soot, mortar and brick dust don't mix well with carpets.

It depends on the age of the house. My parents place (victorian) has relief arches built into the chimney at about 5 feet. No lintel by the fire as you would expect. When I opened up one in a bedroom the brick was in a terrible state. Ended up using some very chunky pieces of timber to hold the bricks up as the mortar is rubbish.

If in doubt, take out a course of bricks at a suitable height and hammer in a piece of timber to act as a support for the bricks above and then remove bricks below.

I also think a little removal of plaster near where the lintel should be is the best idea. On one fireplace in my house they'd used a wooden lintel... It had survived 100 years without catching on fire so I guess it's not a problem!

I had a really narrow fireplace in a house, and widened it with an sds chisel, and slid in a concrete lintel. Brickie mate sorted out the mess I made with some nice vintage bricks.


Put a woodburner in there while your on, you might want to sweep the chimney first....

If ther is no Lintle you can get round this quite easily, when I was fitting windows it was amazing the amount of houses that had windows fitted with Headers directly on top of the frames no lintle. What we did was bolt a baton to the row above using fishcer fixings then rem ove the frame and headers and fitted a suitable lintle. you could use the same method to support the brickwork.

As stated previously I couldnt see why anyone would remove the lintle any way. The usual methods for closing fireplaces is either brick the hole up and plaster or board the hole with plasterboard

Thanks for the reply's so far, I think I will start by chipping away plater up until I find the top of the fire place. Its a house build around 1920 so I suspect rather than a lintel, it may have a solider course. Just want to open it up to make a feature out of it rather than use it as a source of heat, I had the chimneys capped and the upstairs rooms which uses the same chimney are currently bricked up too. The upstairs one is in my daugthers room so want to keep that as it is.

I've done this in my last house.

It was built in 1913 so a similar age as yours. I found my chimney by accident.

If I was you, I'd start by chipping off a small line (10cm/15cm wide) along the height of the skirting. You will find where the original bricks meet the newer bricks. I imagine this will be at the outer edge of the chimney. Then follow this up as this will be one of the pillars.

At the top of this you'll find the lintel of wood, but I think it will be an arch like a bridge. As long as the mortar is in good condition and the joints look tight, I would knock of the rest of the plaster and remove the brick slowly and progressively, checking bother internally and externally for signs of cracking/movement.

Make the whole chimney apparent rather than plastered.

Mine had a wood burner and was absolutely beautiful, the focal point of the whole house not just the room!!!!

I imagine there was a tonne of soot at around the old boiler like mine, if so you chimney will already be clean!!!!

Good luck, and let us all know how it goes.....

Funny this, I've been on the other end of the chimney for a couple of days rebuilding the top of the stack and putting pots on so we can use the wood burner in the room downstairs. This is me 27 feet up on the tower I hired for the job.
The room upstairs may use the same chimney but if it's like ours there is a brick division in the stack separating them (the feather).

[Edited on 2/10/11 by Peteff]

A bit late, but a snap of my work on the chimney. Maybe it will give you some ideas...


chimney

and in colour:


chimney

Thanks Andy

If mine end up looking like that my wife will be well impressed, and I might get some of the saved money to spend on the kit