Opening up a Victorian Fire Place

Carefully, is the simple answer. Originally 90% of Victorian fire places employed the engineering genius of a brick built arch to support the considerable weight of the chimney stack fascia wall. However, over the years, most original fire places have undergone more than one transformation (from back boiler installations to multiple gas fire fittings), which may have resulted in the structural integrity of the arch being compromised (or even removed completely) in one way or another. Some late Victorian properties employ and early incarnation of the 'lintel'. These early lintels were made of either a solid block of stone or slate and do not possess the strength of modern concrete or steel lintels. Consequently, any heavy hammering or drilling could result in a chimney collapse, should the lintel crack and break under the weight. Remember, your chimney brick work stretches from the mantle of your fire place to the top of your chimney stack and represents a total weight in excess of 20 tones in most cases. If you can get your head into the existing opening to look up your chimney with a torch, then look for either a brick arch or a stone / slate lintel in the fascia wall. If neither is clearly visible, call in an expert before going any further. If you can see either of these supporting structures, in tact, then you can remove any brick work directly below them to expose the original 'builders opening'. Pay careful attention to the extremities of any arch you may find, it is important that ALL the bricks in the original arch are still present, any missing bricks will compromise structural integrity. Important: Any stepped bricks visible in the rear wall of your chimney are structural and MUST NOT be removed. These stepped bricks are holding up the internal brick flue walls, these may only be removed by an expert who understands the construction fully and is able to install twin concrete lintels from the fascia chimney wall to the rear chimney wall. This may be impossible in adjoining terraced or semi detached properties, due to UK building regulations. Once again, consult an expert surveyor to conduct an 'on site' survey, should you have any doubts.