Hello All,
First forum post here. Lots of great information, and I'm hoping the experience here will be able to help me on this tangential but related topic!
We recently purchased a home built in the 70s with a wood burning fireplace. I originally thought it was entirely brick, but after pulling some molding off around the fireplace have found that the brick is just a facade. The brick area is about 6 feet wide with 5-foot stud and drywall exterior wall flanking each side. We'd like to mount a wood beam (quite heavy) above the fireplace.
My concern is that the brick facade isn't strong enough to support this weight at the wall's center and the whole thing will come crashing down, so that kind of ruins the original plan to mount the beam using lag bolts and shields.
From what I can see from the gaps at the edge (where there was originally molding), there is about a 4-inch gap from the back of the brick to the a black tyvek-like material (insulation around the fireplace box and chimney?). 5.5 feet from the ground is a horizontal beam (looks like a 2x8) running the width of the brick sitting about a 1/2-inch away from the back of the brick. Mortar has seeped out on top of it from when the brick was installed.
On the left side of the brick, I can see a 2x4 stud from the floor to the horizontal beam about 2 inches in from the edge of the brick. Then above the beam is another 2x4 about 4 inches in from the edge of the brick (so the two 2x4s are offset left to right) running to the ceiling. This stud placement doesn't make sense relative to the flanking stud and drywall walls... especially considering the two flanking walls are symmetrical (so I'd expect to see a stud on the right side as well).
Information dump, done. My questions are:
1) Will the brick facade actually hold this weight on its own?
2) If so, do lag shields feel like a good idea?
3) If not, do we think that horizontal beam would hold the load if I drilled completely through the brick and used it as my load bearing member?
4) Anyone think those studs run at a normal spacing across the back? The beam is a bit higher than I wanted the mantel, so I'm thinking that if I can, I'd use the studs to hold.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
First forum post here. Lots of great information, and I'm hoping the experience here will be able to help me on this tangential but related topic!
We recently purchased a home built in the 70s with a wood burning fireplace. I originally thought it was entirely brick, but after pulling some molding off around the fireplace have found that the brick is just a facade. The brick area is about 6 feet wide with 5-foot stud and drywall exterior wall flanking each side. We'd like to mount a wood beam (quite heavy) above the fireplace.
My concern is that the brick facade isn't strong enough to support this weight at the wall's center and the whole thing will come crashing down, so that kind of ruins the original plan to mount the beam using lag bolts and shields.
From what I can see from the gaps at the edge (where there was originally molding), there is about a 4-inch gap from the back of the brick to the a black tyvek-like material (insulation around the fireplace box and chimney?). 5.5 feet from the ground is a horizontal beam (looks like a 2x8) running the width of the brick sitting about a 1/2-inch away from the back of the brick. Mortar has seeped out on top of it from when the brick was installed.
On the left side of the brick, I can see a 2x4 stud from the floor to the horizontal beam about 2 inches in from the edge of the brick. Then above the beam is another 2x4 about 4 inches in from the edge of the brick (so the two 2x4s are offset left to right) running to the ceiling. This stud placement doesn't make sense relative to the flanking stud and drywall walls... especially considering the two flanking walls are symmetrical (so I'd expect to see a stud on the right side as well).
Information dump, done. My questions are:
1) Will the brick facade actually hold this weight on its own?
2) If so, do lag shields feel like a good idea?
3) If not, do we think that horizontal beam would hold the load if I drilled completely through the brick and used it as my load bearing member?
4) Anyone think those studs run at a normal spacing across the back? The beam is a bit higher than I wanted the mantel, so I'm thinking that if I can, I'd use the studs to hold.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
