Chimney breast apparently lacking support

[mpettitt]

Renovating a bedroom and behind a wooden board found the fireplace. During removal of probably about 40 years (based on the wallpaper on the wooden board) worth of debris, three bricks fell from the top of the opening, suggesting possibly that the amount of support present is insufficient?

I've taken a picture looking up the chimney and can't spot any higher support points and am concerned it needs some extra support somewhere. Any suggestions?

House was built in about 1901, and this chimney breast was behind a bunch of 1970s style fitted wardrobes.

 

[Stevers]

The brick arch for the 'builders opening' of the fireplace is missing. You can see where the bricks were set back each side for the arch to land. You could restore the arch (over a former) to make a feature of it, or put a concrete lintel in and build back up above.

 

[paulc]

Stripped the plaster off a chimney breast here. Had a couple of courses of bricks sitting on a rusting strip of metal (1" by 3/8" if I recall). These two rows fell out without any encouragement. Then found an arch above, and made the mistake of giving a couple of bricks a gentle poke. The arch promptly collapsed
Got a prop with a strong boy in to support the remaining brickwork (although I suspect most of it would have been self supporting) and inserted a concrete lintel.

It looks like there was an arch in there originally - Nine courses up, the bricks have been cut back at an angle. The remaining bricks above have self corbelled, so I don't think you'll get a massive structural failure any time soon. But I'd still go with Stevers suggestion of a lintel or rebuilt arch.

 

[Lacan07]

The brick arch for the 'builders opening' of the fireplace is missing. You can see where the bricks were set back each side for the arch to land. You could restore the arch (over a former) to make a feature of it, or put a concrete lintel in and build back up above.

Stevers, is it true that if your opening is less than 1 meter across you can safely remove and rearrange bricks without the need for props?

I have a a curved lead bar in situ (used as an arch support), I need to raise it a couple of courses to accommodate my wood burner.

 

[Stevers]

@Lacan07 1m seems arbitrary. If the mortar is in poor condition then the triangle of unsupported bricks is vulnerable (as seen above) even if it's less than 1m. However when they knocked through between the living rooms here (with the ceilings each side acro'd) there was over eight feet of apparently unsupported brickwork just hanging there. The builder thought it would be perfectly OK like that, as of course it would be, until it wasn't! I got them to put a stout timber in and got that propped, before he trotted off to source a suitabe lintel - just as well as that took over a week.

Of course not the end of the world to put a few bricks back if they turn out to be a bit loose.

 

[stuart45]

The rule of thumb used to be 3ft, or 4 bricks, but it's only a rough guide as with poorly bonded old brickwork in lime mortar you can still lose a few courses, whereas with well bonded newish brickwork built in cement mortar I've known people take out much longer lengths. I've normally tended to be more cautious with longer lengths and prop.