Victorian Fireplace restore

[Matrixx]

I am soon to purchase a house with fireplaces in the bedrooms, they look pretty grim, but the main visual issue is the broken fire bricks at the back, most of the fire places you see on the net have metal backs , will there be a metal backing behind the fire bricks i.e can I remove the bricks, and then restore.
I have no intention of using them.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

will there be a metal backing behind the fire bricks

Don't think so, the metal-back ones are all of a piece, and just fit into the hole afaik.

 

[Burdekin]

Are the bricks part of the fireplace structure?

Can a metal or cast fireback fit in front of the bricks?

 

[Matrixx]

they looked like they were separate from the fire in 3 vertical parts.

 

[Burdekin]

Some pics from our Victorian house. Fitted the big one in the sitting room with a cast fireback and one of the bedrooms had a metal back attached to the surround.

 

[Burdekin]

they looked like they were separate from the fire in 3 vertical parts.

If they aren't holding up anything and just the fireback, yep can be removed.

 

[rtbcomp]

Some I've seen have the bricks retained in a frame which is part of the casting.

 

[Burdekin]

I also sealed off between the fireplace surround and fireplace with mortar and filled the void behind the back of the fireplace with concrete and old bricks. I use mortar in the cast surrounds to form a seal when pressing into place. I’m not fireplace installer, just did what I thought was right.

 

[MoreWellie]

this is just an example of what you can buy, may well be cheaper elsewhere

https://www.gratefireplaceaccessori...-necessities/fire-backs/fire-brick-fire-backs

 

[Olderisbetter]

My house was built about 1920 so the bedrooms did have fire places but they had been ripped out so i used a small bedroom one i found and i fitted it to a back panel and built a fire surround it sits in that was a better size

 

[Matrixx]

A full blanking plate looks like a good idea, it would hide the ugly bricks and make it draft proof. looks good as well.

 

[Gareth J]

Just looking at a completely blanked off chimney breast as I type. It has an air vent in it. Not sure if that's needed or not, on the flip side, I opened a fully sealed fireplace the other day that had zero vents. It was absolutely fine.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

If blanking off permanently, don't forget to think about closing off the chimney pot at roof level - you don't want a bird getting down in there and dying......... [it does happen]

 

[dobbslc]

We had that!
Took 3 days

 

[MoreWellie]

you don't want a bird getting down in there and dying

you really don't want this, until we had basket put on the lounge chimney we had several cases of birds falling down the chimney and flying, putting soot marks (and carping) all over the lounge, fortunately the door was shut

our dining room chimney had a curtain stuffed up it to stop draughts and the first we knew about the problem there were the maggots wriggling in the fireplace, when I realised and pulled the curtain out I got several bird skeletons out

 

[Seadog]

A friend had a squirrel fall down his chimney. They were away for the weekend and the door was shut. Apparently it trashed every piece every of soft furnishing and the curtains and made a real mess of the carpet. They weren't insured for contents either

 

[Matrixx]

On the House all the chimneys have bird guards so that's OK, I would want some ventilation, as it seems old houses need the ventilation to dry out the brickwork, I also read that capping the chimney is ok but if you have multiple flues there have been instances of leaks and the carbon monoxide leaking into the other flue and killing the occupant's of the bedroom where the fire place was, so carbon monoxide detectors may be a good investment if some of the fireplaces are still used.

I have had a pigeon come down my living room fire place on Christmas morning, it was making a noise so couldn't ignore it, had to pull the whole fire place out to get to it.