what to do with a big hole in a wall

ord.sgt.26NC

ord.sgt.26NC

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Mar 23, 2005
Location
Goldsboro
I recently had a new roof installed on my house.This house was built of oversized structural brick built in the early 60s.A fireplace and chimney was installed in the early 70s. I took the chimney down since it was cracked up and unsafe.What they did, they took out a window and belled out for the fire box and made an open hearth.Then bricked up the chimney and went through the boxing and soffet with it. Then they installed a fireplace insert.The inside is a step up,insert,mantel, and brick face from floor to ceiling.I want to keep this look on the inside and let the insert be a sort of false fireplace.
20160501_183128_resized.jpg

this is what you see on the outside.That is the backside of the brickwork I see on the inside.The grey is new cement I smeared on the reinforce it and seal the joints. A little lower,you see the back of the insert and it's sitting on what is left of the fire box lining and supportive brick work.The white lines to the right and left was the edge of the chimney.It was 5 foot wide.
The insert is slightly recessed into the wall with just the dampner linkage jutting out past it.Any brickwork I do here isn't gonna match and will look like a scab or cobbled up mess.
I'm thinking of some sort or rock like facing if it comes in sheets like plywood if they make such a critter.A rock face from the ground to just below the soffett, with a 6 inch wide board running verticaly on both sides as a molding.
I'm not wanting to rebuild a chimney or put this fireplace back to use.Then again,if the next owners so choose,they can take down what I do and have at it however they want.
Ideas?
 
I had pretty good luck getting the brickwork to match decently when I did the crawlspace vents, so I wouldn't write it off just yet. If you're going to do it, take out the half bricks at the edges of the opening (there's a term for removing those bricks that I came across, can't remember) and it will blend a lot better cosmetically and be stronger.

I count 21 courses of brick, at 5 or 6 wide, so you can almost do that entire opening with a single strap of bricks (mine were $22/strap or something like that). I know it's a lot of work, but I would try it first and then do something different if you think it looks like crap. At the least you'd have a really nice level base to do something different if you need. I had fun pretending I knew what I was doing for a day, I recommend giving it a shot at least as a learning experience.

I'd be slightly more concerned about the white lines where the chimney was, but those might be able to be removed. I'm sure a brick Mason would have some good tricks to get rid of stuff like that.

You could do stone veneer over top of it...
 
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Or maybe do a full top-to-bottom raised brick layer, so all the brick would match along the full height of the wall, like a really shallow (one brick deep maybe) chimney that isn't a chimney?
 
these bricks are waaaayyyy oversized. Don't let the number of courses fool you. This house is built more like a concrete block house. I'm looking at some sort of rock veneer but was hoping for something in a sheet like a Hardy board that had the look of a stone face.
Trying not to do much in the way of brick work if I can help it. I do that on a regualr basis at work.
 
What are the dimensions of the bricks? They look like utility, which is pretty common and shouldn't be hard to find.

My first thought is to brick up the opening, then lay lick-and-stick fake stone over top.

If there's any sort of foundation there, you could build a little stud wall and side it.
 
If that is a 8" x 16" vent in the picture those are some big bricks
 
Fabrik8 said:
normal sized bricks
Click to expand...

Define "normal sized" - we don't use modular at all anymore. Everything is Norman by default, or possibly Kingston/Jumbo Norman/whatever (5 courses in 16" and 12" long). Then utility.
 
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