Re-opening a bricked fire place?

[Karlio2020]

Hi folks, first time poster and newbie but I’m in the middle of renovating my living room and the previous owners had removed and bricked up the fire place. I’ve removed the plaster and my intention is to open it back up and have a cast iron insert installed. I believe I can see what would be the original builders opening, now I’ve tapped a brick out to see what’s behind and it’s full of rubble (ugh) but will it be ok to remove the bricked up section or should a lintel be installed first? Or will there already be one?
House is approximately 1938 construction.

 

[bobasd]

theres lots of posts like yours in the last few weeks.maybe lookk them up?
open up to the builders opening and arch or lintel about 1 or 2 courses above .clean it out ,sweep and smoke test the flue and any flues upstairs and then do a photo .
go on the roof and examine the stack and flaunching, terminals and flashing especly the back gutter.
is anything going to happening with the hearth?

 

[Karlio2020]

theres lots of posts like yours in the last few weeks.maybe lookk them up?
open up to the builders opening and arch or lintel about 1 or 2 courses above .clean it out ,sweep and smoke test the flue and any flues upstairs and then do a photo .
go on the roof and examine the stack and flaunching, terminals and flashing especly the back gutter.
is anything going to happening with the hearth?

Yeah I’ve read numerous posts with varying degrees of clarity but most people are planning on installing wood burning stoves so the advice was always slightly different as they’re wishing to make the builders opening bigger. Which I am not wanting to do.

The hearth? My plan was to have it tiled

 

[Nige F]

Take a bit more plaster off @ the top

 

[Doggit]

It looks as though there's a lintel above the opening, so I'd remove the bricks carefully, and investigate further. The whole chimney is tied into the wall, so there's not much danger as long as you use a degree of caution. If there is no lintel, then we can take you through the procedure later.

 

[Ian H]

I think you need to go higher too, the brick pillars either side look to go higher than what you have exposed so far.

 

[Karlio2020]

So I’ve opened some of the builders opening. Shot the camera phone up and we have this about 2-3 rows of bricks up.... it appears to run the width of the breast, is that my concrete lintel?

 

[bobasd]

as i said in my first post,knock off the plaster above where you were in that first photo.go a few courses higher.the lintel is on the front of the c/breast.it might be an brick arch or a concrete lintel.
post a photo of the front of the c/breast?
read some of therecent similar posts and look at the photos on them

 

[Gossamer]

You don't mention the age of the property, but mines ~100yrs old and all the fireplaces have iron bars as lintels.
I just removed the plasterboard covering the opening, enough plaster to see the extent of the opening, removed the 'new' bricks then removed the backfill. Then do what you will.
The only one I've materially changed is the kitchen as I want to put a cooker in there, so put in a concrete lintel and removed the bricks and original lintel below it.