Metal bar inside chimney breast

[David Angel]

I have a fireplace with a 4 foot high brick arch. Just above the brick arch INSIDE the fireplace there is a metal bar which is connected between the back and the front of the fireplace. I am about to run a liner down the chimney and it is exactly where the stove pipe will attach to the liner so it's in the way! Is this metal bar structural? Or was it used to hang a pot from perhaps so can safely be removed...

The bottom line is, can I chop it out without the stack falling down to make way for my new liner? ;-)

Thanks

 

[chuckey]

How very odd! the only support (other then to a cooking pot) this bar can offer is to stop the front and back of the chimney spreading apart. This does not seem to be of a major concern to the builders of the many chimney breasts I have seen. I would cut it out.
Frank

 

[grays85]

hi.. i've got bar in my chimney too,
it's central to the flue, so i've put a couple of offsets in (one with a brushing access) to miss the bar..
I felt it was structural as the previous message, I also found higher up in the chimney..much higher than i wanted to have the flexible liner to start, hooks which i believe were for smoking the meat. I've now got these on show, if anyone wished to pop under the ingle nook beam!! without get to tarred up from the old tar that lines the lower point of the ingle nook

 

[biffvernon]

Don't bother with the liner but hang your supper from the bar.