Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

Basically we live in a semi detached house, in both main downstairs rooms we have a chimney breast. It looks like a standard size downstairs in both rooms, upstairs its just a very narrow funnel.

Ive basically gutted one room back to bare brick and removed the ceiling so its just a shell, now would be a great time to get things right. The brickwork on the chimney breast is very ropey to say the least, i wouldn't mind making a feature of it but that wouldn't be possible in its current state.

Also the alcoves either side of the chimney breast are not even in size, one is larger than the other so i wouldn't mind evening that up while ive got the chance. The other thing that makes me want to do it is you can't get a 42 inch or bigger TV into the alcove, the corner of the chimney breast gets in the way so it has to sit quite a bit out from the corner.

With the upstairs part of the breast only being a narrow funnel can you safely shorten the width of the breast down stairs to make the alcoves bigger ?

Dimensions of the chimney breast downstairs:

Height 98 inches, width 59 inches, depth 18.5 inches

Upstairs dimensions.

Width 19 inches, depth 14 inches.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

A few pics



Here are the alcoves, as you can see the left one is bigger than the right. I want to balance that up by reducing the width.





Rough brickwork

mamoon2

Looks ok to me. Just needs a good clean up and scrape the plaster off. Any bricks that don't clean up, just replace yourself.

Plenty of guides online on how to replace bricks & re-point

pandyman

quote=mamoon2;9652681]Looks ok to me. Just needs a good clean up and scrape the plaster off. Any bricks that don't clean up, just replace yourself.

Plenty of guides online on how to replace bricks & re-point[/quote]

Specsavers me thinks lol, that brickwork wouldnt look too good as a feature wall thats a fact!

The chimney is a structural element of the house usually and to reduce the size of one side would not really be practical due to cost i would expect.
Have you considered totally removing the chimney all the way up to the loft? give yourself loads more room. It is a dusty job but as you have the house stripped it wont add too much to the disruption.
The remains of the chimney in the loft can be supported with a steel gallows bracketed shelf arrangement. However you WILL need structural calcs for this!!!
and a building notice for the local council, neither of them costly.

HTH
Andy