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Stonemasonry
Epic old fireplace discovered
Anonymous user 21 May 2019 - 2.27 PM
Hello I've recently began renovating a stone cottage. After removing years of old wallpaper and plaster, as well as a gas fire I discovered a huge old fireplace. There's a huge lintel, or looks to be a lintel spanning the fireplace opening. As i continued to knock away the lower sections of brick and plaster; which were used to block the fireplace originally a large piece of sandstone fell off. Now it looks to the naked eye that the lintel is un-supported on the left side. That is, both ends of the lintel looked to rest of stone protruding from the wall. Now o ly the right side looks supported. However., on inspection the entire lintel appears to be the connected internally to the stone arch, which forms part of the chimney. 1) My question is. Shall I leave it as is, it looks good and doesn't appear to have weakened. 2) Should I build a stone supporting column to sit beneath the left side of lintel? Sorry for the longwindedness Regards Tony I have photos if they would help
6 answers from MyBuilder tradespeople
I have worked on restoring a chimney where the same thing occured .If there is plenty of bearing at least 4 inches where the lintel is bonding into the arch it should be fine especially if the wider part of the lintel is in the arch . You could consider joining a new piece of stone to the face of the lintel connected through the perp joint with 2 pieces of stainless steel M12 rebar and a 2 part fixing resin . this would help give a little more support at front of lintel (but not adequate unless lintel is indeed properly supported by arch) and also restore to original look .
Answered
3 June 2019
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Anonymous user
You could resin it, however ideally it should have a minimum of 150mm (6") of bearing. Building up to and supporting either end would by far be a better/stronger job. After all it is taking the weight of the chimney stack.
Answered
5 June 2019
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The tradesmen who gave the following answer was correct in what he mentioned, but he never said that he would build in a stone stantion, to the left side, under the lintel. The client mentioned that the stone had fallen away, from this area.
Answered
4 June 2019
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You could also put an acro~prop in to take the weight until the rest of the work is completed, then rebuild /refill whatever came out to strengthen said side. Cheers Richard
Answered
10 June 2019
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Anonymous user
If I doubt take the leg out acroprop lintel up Nd but new leg in IV not seen pictures but that's how I would do it
Answered
11 June 2019
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I personally would acro the lintel and take enough stone out to properly repair the rest but an indent would suffice if the larger part of the lintel has the required 150mm bearing into the wall and would also be a much quicker option
Answered
17 June 2019
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