Opening out a fireplace

Leif

I had an old solid fuel fireplace and had the heath and surround removed as they were ugly:



I've put down mortar to fill the shallow hole where the old hearth went. I'm thinking about removing the fire back, and other junk to reveal the brick opening. Is that likely to be difficult, other than a bit of hard physical work? I assume there is already a lintel in place, so it'd just be a case of knocking out the fire back. I'm not sure how I would patch the plaster around the edge. Once done, I'd put down a slabbed granite hearth, and a wood surround.

It seems I could put in a fire basket and burn logs, which makes me wonder why the fire back was there, or is that specifically for coal?

w50nky

It is not difficult to remove your fireback etc. It is just a dirty dusty job. There will most likely be a "builders opening" (not trying to be rude) which you will find as you remove the fireback and throat plate backfill etc. Start by removing the plaster from the chimney breast to ensure that there is a lintle. There should be one of one kind or another but if there isn`t fit one!
Once you have gone to your builders opening I would seek advice on how to proceed regarding an open log basket as you don`t want to kill yourself with fumes. A stove is another option with lots of advice on this forum.

You can use expanded metal mesh for making good your plastering at the edge of the opening or, you can fix timbers verticaly to the opening edges and render up to these. Remove the timber when render is dry and you will have a vertical edge to plaster up to. Google is your friend when it comes to plastering/rendering.

Good luck

smcqis

We have had to do what you did, we removed all the plaster on the chimney breast (except the sides) there was a lintel there but quite low so this was removed out and a new one put in at a higher location. We have got bricks build up the sides about 4 inches out (just a design feature and to accomodate mantlepiece) so Monday hopefully the plaster will be going on

Leif

Thanks for the information, and apologies for not responding sooner.