It’s time to see what’s behind that old fireplace!
We had 3 fireplaces in our house and 3 separate chimneys. Our fireplace surrounds were very art deco-not at all to our taste:
Ours were open fires, we had absolutely no gas connected to our house when we bought it so for us it was simply a case of ripping the old fire places off the wall! if you do have a fireplace which has a gas connection then make sure you have fully switched off the gas before attempting to rip your old fire place out!
The best way to remove the old fireplace surround should be fairly simple. Pick yourself up a hammer and chisel, place the chisel between the wall and the surround, tap your hammer into the chisel, once the chisel is embedded between the gap you can start to edge the fire surround away from the wall.
make sure if you do plan to keep your carpet/flooring that you protect them with substantial material, and wear a mask that covers your mouth and nose for protection, this is going to be a very messy job!
Once we ripped out our surround we realised that our fireplace could be opened right out as it had been boarded up using bricks, we ensured the lintel above the fireplace was strong enough and knocked the bricks out.
We found a stumbling block when we knocked out our kitchen fireplace. Within the surround was an old fashioned water heater, this had obviously been put in place to heat water when the fire was lit, this was connected to a copper water tank in the loft-again extra cost to remove all of this which we weren’t expecting.
Over all removing the fire surround and opening up the fire places was without a doubt one of the best decisions we made. Pictures will be revealed at a later stage of how these fireplaces look today.
all homely things 