New chimney breast opening advice

Mizydoscape

Hello!

We moved into an Edwardian terraced house back at the end of September. We have booked to have the plastered chimney breast reopened and a stove installed next month. 

Has anyone had this done? What do we need to do to prepare - I'm thinking about covering/moving furniture, what about the carpet etc? It's a 2 day job. My only experience is in our old house where we had an internal wall removed and that was a nightmare for mess and dust even with doorways taped shut etc.

I don't want a debate about whether we should be doing this or not thanks.

stuart45

I have done a few for people and it is a fair bit of dust.

Bendy_House

Any furniture you can move right out of that room, do so... Any you cannot, cover with sheets (Screwfix and similar sell cheap decorating sheets - some are very thin plastic so quite easy to tear, but are large and will do the 'furniture' job. You can tape them down at the edges to stop them flapping about.)

Is the carpet in good order - will you be keeping it? If so, the builders should be covering this with proper thick protective decorating sheets, and might even lay a sheet of ply or similar over them in front of the fireplace if they anticipate chucks of rubble falling out.

I'm sure the builders will do what they can to mitigate against mess, but it's bound to be dusty, and probably even sooty. You'll have some sucking up to do afterwards

Mizydoscape

Thanks both. Our lounge and dining room are open plan so I guess I'll need to consider both rooms. I reckon I can shift everything over to the far end of the dining room and then cover up.

I'm working on the presumption that the opening behind the current plasterboard already exists and is fit for purpose although may need boarding with heat resistant board which has been quoted for. Just before he is due I plan to remove the vent on the wall and have a good nosy behind. I think it's glued on at the moment hence not doing this already!

I'll brace myself for mess then!

pramsay13

We had this done but it really wasn't too bad for dust and mess. The stove installers were very good at stopping much mess being made and clearing up after themselves.
We had far more of an issue when we opened a new loft hatch. We were cleaning up dust for weeks after that.