Kitchen chimney breast

[plasticpigeon]

Hello people

I am hoping someone can tell me what I have here. I am removing (or hoping to remove) an old Parkray from a kitchen chimney breast an an Edwardian terrace. It is a large opening which I imagine once had a range in it. I was expecting to find a metal flue liner attached to the Parkray. Instead I found some brickwork forming a small flue from the top of the back boiler. This extends up the main flue a few feet above the top of the opening. The walls of the flue were built into the brickwork at the front of the opening which I have removed. however neither the bricks at the front or the bricks dividing up the main flue go all the way to the floor. they seem to be suspended somehow. I can look through the gap to the right hand side of the parkray and can see the backboiler with pipes coming out of it. It does however have some kind of concrete box around it, and I can only imagine that the brickwork above is built onto that. I don't really understand how the small flue was built as it goes up quite high and is very narrow. Anyway, to get the Parkray out I imagine is have to take this small flue out, but where do I start from?? I can't take it out from the top down as I can't get to the upper bricks, but I am scared just to start from the middle as I don't want the lot to fall on my head!!! Does anyone have any advice>>

Many thanks

Jerome

 

[middi]

The original chimney was, more than likely, built to incorporate a small range, as you have suggested. The range front would have covered the entire opening right up to the brick archway with integrated fire box and canopy.

The later " fire" addition would have necessitated the " re-arranging" and addition of brickwork to integrate it.

I don't think anything drastic will happen if you remove that later fire, except, make sure you wear a crush helmet for the odd loose brick :wink:

Middi

( without prejudice )

 

[MdB]

Your bottom picture confuses me. Obviously it is looking up the chimney with the lintel at the bottom of the picture. I was expecting both the left and right walls of bricks to stop and the front / back (bottom / top of pic) walls to continue all the way up. It appears instead that the left and back walls stop and the right wall continues up which seems a little strange. I think I would want to make sure that I knew exactly what was original and what was new before doing anything. I would then stick a sledge up the chimney and start knocking bricks off from the top down (or preferably, get somebody who doesn't mind bricks landing on their head to do it for me )

 

[AMc]

Can't help much but as you have a digital camera or camera phone you may be able to get a better look than you think.
If you can tape a torch and the camera onto a broom handle (or similar) then stretch a clear plastic bag over it. Set the camera to video, you can carefully poke it up and get an idea of what's up there. Give a running commentary about where your pointing it so you can make sense of the video when you look at it.
If you have an extending zoom lens be extra careful not to bump it as that can be very bad news.

I used one of these - which I originally bought to take family self portraits on holiday
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=104014

With a better look it may be obvious what you need to do.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks for the replies. The last picture might be a bit misleading. The bottom of the picture shows the arch with metal strap. The top of the picture shows the back wall. The back wall has had and extra layer of bricks built infront of it for the whole area of the opening, reducing the depth of the opening up to just past the top of the arch. That is why it looks like it just stops.

looking from the front the original flue snakes round to the right hand side above the arch i. e. it snakes towards the party wall. Therefore what is seen in the bottom picture because of the angle is the main flue going off to the left as the picture is really upside down. therefore the wall on the right in the picture is built up to the top of the flue that is angled across to the left in the picture. It looks like one wall because it is covered in soot and sulphur. The wall on the left of the picture just stops, but actually is angled on the top to mirror the slope of the top of the flue. The chimney breast side wall was once a 9" wall all the way down, but unfortunately much of it is now a half brick thick as chunks of masonry have been smashed out to make room for pipes, or for some other reason. I would be happier if it was built back to 9".

I do think that the brickwork making the small flue is a later addition, but the bricks used do match the rest of the bricks on the house. Also it has been built with a weak mortar not a strong cement mortar like most stuff these days, but it is a different colour to the rest of the house. Perhaps the flues for the original range were knocked out and the bricks reused. I appreciate that it might be good to get a builder to come and look, but in my experience they will not be able to tell anymore about the construction than me, they might just be less worried about knocking it down than I am!!!!!

 

[stuart45]

The normal way to build a chimney is to do the jambs and the gather first, and fill in the builders opening later. It looks to me like the brickwork for the bottom flue has just been built up to meet the brickwork in the gather.
Here is a picture of a first floor chimney breast showing the construction before the fireback is built in. In your case the brickwork for the bottom of the flue would be added.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks Stuart, I think you're right and it's just built up to the gather. What book it that that you have scanned, I am a sucke for old construction books!!!

 

[stuart45]

It's called 'Practical building and decorating'. First published in 1957 by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons LTD. It's got 3 parts to it . Brickwork, carpentry and painting and decorating. Over 700 pages in all.