Cast iron mantel installation

[silverwhippet]

Hello...

I've just acquired a nice cast iron fireplace insert (1890ish) with a matching (but separate) cast iron surround/mantelpiece.

I'm not a complete beginner to fitting fireplaces -- I've successfully installed a cast iron insert before and built a timber surround for it

-- but this is the first time I've tried to fit a metal surround.

My problem is that I can't see any obvious way of fixing the surround to the brickwork. There are no lugs or mirror plates to screw to the wall, and there's no kind of flange that could be plastered over -- just two metal loops at the back.

There's nothing missing, as far as I can tell -- the surround doesn't look as though it's lost any parts.

I suppose you could thread a piece of wire through the loops and attach it to another loop set in the brickwork -- but I can't see that that would be enough to hold the whole thing up and keep it stable. Am I wrong?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

There's also no way of joining the insert to the surround. Would it be sensible to put fire cement where they meet to seal the gap?

Thanks in advance.

[George]

Pics would be nice?

[Mary Fisher]

How about the equivalent of mirror plates? Our fireplaces are fastened like that to the wall.

Mary

[silverwhippet]

Here you go:

1. This is the insert. The slate mantelpiece, wooden supports and the big sheet of rusty metal in the fireplace are leftovers from the wood burner we've just removed. They're all going. The insert is narrower than the opening, so I'll be putting a row of bricks up each side to reduce the size, with a new lintel at the top.

This is the surround:

Three views behind the surround, showing you one of the two loops at the back:

those are helpful. This can't be an impossible job -- clearly some Victorian builder managed to fix it to the wall wherever it was before...

Thanks again,

James

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[silverwhippet]

I'd had similar thoughts -- but how would you attach the mirror plates to the surround if they're not part of the cast iron?

Thanks,

James

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[Mary Fisher]

Drill (carefully) and screw?

Mary

[George]

I suspect the loops where for cast iron bolts driven into the brickwork and the bottom edges of the mantle feet were set into the earth(sandstone)?

regards to the feet you could cut out a channel in the stonework base then sand&cement around the feet to seal them into the stonework base which will stop it moving

[John Rumm]

Tis what I thought, but it seems odd to have the loop running vertically and not horizontally. The latter would let you lower it onto a sturdy hook...

Perhaps two large hooks facing left or right would do. Position slightly offset and slide the mantle to the side such that it engages with the hooks. Fix the base as George described.

[silverwhippet]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I've had a brainwave: lay bricks up the side of the opening as planned, but at the height of the metal loops I can use a half brick, set back from the front of the opening. Then I can fix a hook into that brick -- and then reach through the middle of the insert to join the surround to the hook with a length of wire or similar.

Actually, the ideal option would be something like a cable tie made of metal -- do such things exist?

And George's suggestion for fixing the base seems like a good one. Thanks.

I'm going to rip off the old surround this morning and have a play.

James

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[mark]

It would have been fitted by pieces of steel rod of say 3/16th of and inch in diameter and 12" long . The ends of which would have been bent to hook into the loops on the back of the suround. The rest of these rods would have been built into the brick work.

mark