OOPS!............

Ok so we live in a 200 year old house with four fireplaces that have be walled up for over 30 years. This morning I told my wife I was going to cut a SMALL inspection hole in our dinning room wall to see what was back there. Do you think she'll notice?

Actually this is the start of a woodstove or insert projet for use next winter. The oil guy is due any day now to fill that 330 gal tank in the basement and I'm hoping to make this the last season of that.

hearthtools said:

Do you have a before photo?

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No before photo. I got a little carried away in the demo before I thought to get the camera out. As I said this is the beginning of a major project. The end result of which will be a new stainless or poured chimney liner, haven't decided yet and an insert or woodstove. Oh and a lot of new brick and repointing.

Should be a fun project so I will take pictures along the way.

hearthtools said:

IMO
I would tare the whole thing down and put a free stand
Looking on how that all came appart I hate to see the rest come down on your head.

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Not out of the question. I want to get the rest of the wall down around it so I can get a real good look at the whole thing. I am really leaning toward building a brick hearth and wall up to the point were it starts to step into the chimney. That would be from the floor up about 4 to 5 feet up and repoint from there to the ceiling. Could the old firebox become the cleanout for the chimney? Then install a freestanding stove. Not a real big fan of inserts for some reason.

As I said I'm just getting to the point now to understand all the variables then I will go from there. It is an old house so I am not going to be niave to the fact that it may be a total loss.

Eric