Opening up fireplace 'cavity'

[GI Joe]

We're in a Victorian terrace, which originally had fireplaces in the front and back rooms downstairs. The back one was bricked up and plastered/decorated over a long time ago, but the one in the front room was kept as an open fire until we had a gas one installed a couple of years ago.

Now SWMBO has decided that the fireplace in the back room should be opened up as a cavity space, for displaying flowers, etc, or even just for extra storage.

How would I go about doing this? Is it a big job? I presume there must be some problems with the potential for gas to make its way up the chimney breast of the front room and down into the back room. How would I seal the cavity up?

Thanks in advance.

Tom.

[Phil L]

You don't need to 'seal' the flue as such, gas or exhaust fumes can't come back down because of the draw of the fire, IE air / gas / fumes naturally flow up the chimney, it would have to be gale force winds to send it back down and even then it would be so small as to be unnoticable. You can build a 2X2 batten framework inside and plasterboard over the flue, this will stop any soot falls from landing in your wife's flower arrangements...you might get away with painting the brickwork, or if you want it smooth, p-board over this too.

[Thomarse]

Hi,

There shouldnt be a problem with gasses as when you had the gas fire > We're in a Victorian terrace, which originally had fireplaces in the

[.]

that's almost exactly what I did.

I plan to put a widescreen TV* in the 1m x 1.1m space with a couple of shelves (or one shelf and two drawers) under the TV for the amps, boxes & assorted gubbins. I'll be using timberboard from travis perkins for the woodwork and I'll be drilling through the sides of the chimbley breast to run 240v & CT100 in behind the drawers & TV so for once and for all I'll lose the 'spaghettti behind the AV kit' nightmare.

• as big a screen as I can get going no deeper than 48cm