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Hello all, I'm new to the forum and have just completed the purchase of our first house, it's a mid terrace, 1930s ex council house.

We have bought the house as it needs updating, the first thing to do is the fireplace.

I have taken out the old 1960s gas fire & the pre cast liner. I have come across what looks like some quite shocking block work that I believe was an addition to the original construction.

From what I can see the 6 inch block on the sides do not appear to be tied in (straight much joints) also the bricks above don't got any further than the exposed render. It looks like the sides of the chimney are pre cast, I've been in the loft and the rest of the chimney is block construction.

I'm going to knock off more of the render to hopefully find another lintel (other than the metal one below the bricks) my aim is to open up the fireplace a bit more as by the time I've re lined it I would really be gaining a lot - I do like a good sized open fire [emoji91]

Has anybody else seen a similar setup to this?

BTW if I don't find another lintel, which I doubt i will anyway, I'm probably just going to prop it and put in a bigger one.

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if you dont want the gas supply then isolate it from where it branches off a larger pipe. dont leave it dangling. take it out completely.
high in the left recess theres boxing. probably with pipes inside. are any of the pipes from any previous old back boiler? going to and from the cylinder if its still there? remove them too.

doubtful you will find any higher lintel or brick arch.
use an acrow Big Boy for propping.
just remove the blocks they are not supporting anything.
a big fireplace will take a lot of the open fire heat up the flue.
scrub any remaining soot off with a stiff brush and sweep the flue.

after hacking off all the chimney breast plaster you could render with lime and sand.
is pic 3 taken in the loft?

now might be a time to fix DSS's in the recesses at 18" height.

I will be capping the gas pipe at source, just got to work through the maze of pipe work all over the house.

The bit on the top left is where the chimney opens up in the upstairs bedroom, the bottom of that part is supported by the downstairs part of the chimney and the single skin wall that separates the front room and kitchen.

I will be sticking in a proper flue liner just to be safe, the liner shouldn't cost more than £150 so well worth it.

I've had a another look at the 6 inch blocks & it looks like somebody previous has taken out the original lintel and replaced with the metal one below the bricks, it only extends up to the 6 inch blocks so I will be proping the chimney and rebuilding the sides with some nice faced clay bricks.

It's a shame about the chimney staggering across though, we plan to take out the wall between the kitchen & front room which may be a bit more difficult now.

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Oh and yes the last image is the chimney on the loft.

I will re render the chimney once I've finished and will be sticking up some brick slips to finish. Not sure what you mean by dss's?

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flues go up, some times at 45 degrees, but never horizontal.
can you post a pic of the chimney breast above?
all flues should be opened up and swept, and left with venting top and bottom when the fire opening is covered again.

the c/breast in the loft will be carrying two flues.

dss - sockets, whats wrong with googling?