Unblovking Fireplaces

Oct 22, 2006 5 Replies

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elziko 19 years ago

I have been knocking out a blocked up fireplace in a victorian property. I was planning to just knock out what had been bricked up - I've done that and have found that the orignal opening isn't central in the chimney breast. There is also an existing off-centre tiled hearth so I do think that was the original design - no idea why!

Should I knock out some (about a brick's width) of the orignal brickwork to centralise it (which I suppose could affect things structually) or just put the new fireplace in off-centre and accept it as a quirk in the original desgin?

Just wanted some opinions!

TIA

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Phil L 19 years ago

If it's that important to you that the new fire is centralised, simply box in a bricks width on the short side, far simpler than risking opening it up, the arch (or lintel) may get disturbed, then you've got serious problems

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Paul 19 years ago

in our house the upstairs fireplaces are off centre because of the chimney breast having two flues in it, one from the downstairs and the bedroom fire.

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Andrew Gabriel 19 years ago

There's probably a flue going past on the thicker side.

Definately not, unless you like the idea of being buried under tonnes of collapsed chimney stack!

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Aidan Karley 19 years ago

Paul and Andrew have got the explanation. I grew up in a 3-storey Victorian house with the same problem, doubled up. I hope that you've dropped the idea of bringing the chimney down around your ears.

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elziko 19 years ago

Well I'm quite happy with an off-centre fireplace now I know theres a reason and you can rest assured that I'm not going to destroy it any further. Although a couple of the orginal bricks did get destroyed whilst removing the new ones used to block up the opening.

Thanks (to all) for your replies.

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