First floor hearth / chimney breast

[Colin Wilson]

I`m working from memory on this one so i`ll apologise for any vagueness !

In my front bedroom I have a chimney breast with a small air vent in there. In the past I would assume (perhaps wrongly) that it would have been an open fire. The proximity of the fire and hearth would have been worryingly close to an adjacent wall I would have thought though - about

2' to the centre

Dodgy ascii follows :-}

| chimney breast |

[stuart noble]

The concrete is usually about 4" deep and sits in a wooden "cradle". Breaks up easily, and not worth trying to skim just a bit off the top. A couple of

4x2s on edge with a sheet of 3/4" ply on top is usually the right sort of depth. The last one I did had plenty of solid timber underneath to fix the new joists to. This was in a bathroom where a wash basin was being fitted against the breast, and there was nowhere for the pipes to run. I made his life easier but he forgot to leave me a tile gap behind the basin. That's plumbers for you.

[BigWallop]

[Kalico]

I'm in the middle of doing this exact job at the moment and have done a few before.

The concrete will not be deep and will have been laid over either stone flags or a wooden cradle. Best thing is to remove it totally with a chisel and hammer or your SDS on roto-stop etc.

Then, replace with wood, installing new joists if necessary to support the boards. Some people use a sheet of ply but I have actually knocked out the complete fireplace so I'm going to use matching floorboards (yes, you can always still get any size) and board right to the back of the fireplace.

Actually, of all the ones I've done before, this one looks the best. I have removed the plaster for about a foot all the way around the opening and then finished off the bricks so that the effect is that of framing the nice brick and recess, into which I will sit (for decoration only) an old enamel wood burning stove.

Hope that helps with regard to the floor. Let me know if you need more help but definitely remove that concrete which is proud of the rest of the floor.

Rob

[Colin Wilson]

Thanks for the replies everyone - i`m as impressed as ever with the help around here ;-)