Chimney & Fireplace

Wood burning stove, but no fireplace recess - how high for a fake mantle above it?

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.09 PM

Hi there, I have recently moved into a house with a beautiful wood burning stove in the living room. However the people who lived here before us filled in the fireplace recess and put the stove on a 7 inch bed of concrete, only an inch max away from the wall. It sort of sticks out in the room and we want to try and make it suit the room a bit more by removing the giant concrete base, putting down a slate hearth and slate tiles behind it to protect the wall behind which is completely cracked with all the plasterer falling off due to the heat I think. The flue comes out of the top of the stove and into the wall about 10 inches up from the stove. The plaster around where the flue enters the wall is also falling off and cracked. Once this is repaired, and covered with slate, we'd like to create a fake mantlepiece above the flue. How high from the flue should we go? Can we use an old beam of wood or would we have to buy something heat proof instead? Apologies for the vagueness and lack of technical detail, but we are really stuck with this and want to sort it before the plaster on the walls comes off completely! Thanks in advance