Removing Stone Mantel

[James Mudler]

Hello,

The picture attached is of my basement in my new home. The room is now gutted and the only thing left is the ceiling and the fireplace wall. The room is 13x22. I have a huge stone fireplace and I want to remove it. I have removed the base but have not started on the wall (rented a Hilti gun for 4.5 hours). Any suggestions? The rocks are big and heavy and I worried about damaging the flute area the rocks are cemented to. The rock is 5" off the wall. I plan to frame into the frieplace and not use it.

[Jim Fancher]

Hello,

The picture attached is of my basement in my new home. The room is now gutted and the only thing left is the ceiling and the fireplace wall. The room is 13x22. I have a huge stone fireplace and I want to remove it. I have removed the base but have not started on the wall (rented a Hilti gun for 4.5 hours). Any suggestions? The rocks are big and heavy and I worried about damaging the flute area the rocks are cemented to. The rock is 5" off the wall. I plan to frame into the frieplace and not use it.

I have zero experience with this, but if it's just a veneer, I'd probably start at the top and carefully pop them off one at a time to see how it's constructed. I'm guessing brick underneath the stone veneer.

Again, I have zero experience with this, so don't listen to me. :D

[Gary Max]

This ain't going to be the answer you wanted to here.
If that is a real fireplace it is worth a truck load of money.
If you do not like looking at it---just cover it with a false wall.
This will keep the value of the fireplace.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

That is exactly what I was thinking Gary! It looks too great to be torn out!

[James Mudler]

Thanks everyone and I have decided to build a false wall around it. I was boucing back and forth on using the basement for my theater room or woodshop. Since I will keep the basement for the wood shop - a false wall will suffice. And provide more places to hang stuff. I will do a add-on to the house for the dedicated theater room.