Once we had removed the internal wall and stacked the bricks in the garden hopefully to be re-used on another project it was time to turn our attention to removing the old fireplace and opening up the chimney breast to accomodate the cooker, the series of photographs on the right show the enormity of the task.
Originally there would have been a cast iron range in this area but that appears to have been long gone and replaced with a much smaller conventional fireplace which according to dates and initials in the area was in 1949. Anyway, out with the big hammer and the lads set to in taking the space back to the original Victorian opening, it was at this time whilst I was away on business that my ever so sensible wife decided it would be a good idea to get in the structural engineer to make sure what I was doing was correct and safe, suffice to say, £150 lighter and a whole lot of extra work to what I had planned was needed!!! this entailed building two sides of bricks to hold the 6"x 6" steel beam required to support the internal chimney structure, just as a precaution in case something moved and the whole lot came crashing down, with probably half the house with it!!! as I said, just a precaution!!
No comments:
Post a Comment