# Forum Home Renovation Demolition  Problem removing Old Fire Breast

## spike67

Hi
My friend wants to pull down a fire breast in the basement , it is not the original , it is a brick built one , built around the original , have taken some bricks of to see if it is supporting anything and I am a bit puzzled has to what I am finding . 
Lucking at the very top , it seems there is a concrete base base above it which looks like the fire hearth of the second floor fireplace !.
The way I understand it is that there was some timber going across the top of the floor/Ceiling joists and that would of been the form to cast the concrete base for the second floor fire hearth ! . 
But it seems ( if I am correct ) that someone has chopped away part of that timber along with part of the Joist and stuck a couple of bricks from the new fire breast up to the concrete below the second floor hearth ! .
Maybe the pics attached will explain it better me 
It is quite a old 3 storey sand stone building the 2 bits of joist sticking out are just dummies , not doing anything .  The 2 bricks are only holding the second floor concrete hearth , nothing else , and the new breast is only bricked to just below the ceiling , it is not supporting anything at all .  The breast we are wanting to remove is a new breast , the original breast is still there ( I think ) but it is not very deep and does not come out far enough to support under the concrere hearth ! .  I just keep thinking why they would of chipped away the support form and a good part of the first joist , then stick a couple of bricks there , I just can't get it . 
Read more: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/s...#ixzz5n86buCsS 
cheers
Spike

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