wood in the sides of my fireplace...

[Sal]

hi me again - sorry its been... forever...

so we have taken out the truly hideous 1950s ish fireplace, with a view to opening up and putting in a woodburner.

We found that the lime plaster had already been cut back to put in said hideous fake fire thingy complete with fake canopy ... and replaced with 3" of cement/concrete. when we got that off, we are back to stones, lime mortar(needs repointing) etc. and a brick arch. how old is a brick arch likely to be?

but on both sides of the opening, there are pieces of wood set in between the stones,, fairly big log shaped pieces.. and a bit rotten (soggy crumbly)

why would this wood be here? to attach a surround to? should it be replaced?


thanks in advance

Sal

 

[chuckey]

I would imagine that as its "loggy" its at least 70 years old and put in to fix a range or fire place surround to (cast iron not melamine faced MDF). It could even have held a fire crane or such like. I would remove them and make good the holes with lime and brick or stone.
Frank

 

[DaveBrigg]

Could the wood be a lintel? Some fireplaces had alcoves in the sides, and it may be that the hole has since been bricked up. If the wood is rotten you need to look at what is holding up the bricks above.