Is the fireplace hearth structural?

I’m doing a reno and would like to removed the raised hearth on my fireplace on the 2nd floor to make the flooring even. However, I’m having trouble figuring out whether the hearth extension was structural or not.

Ideally, I would just close up the flooring now having removed the two layers of raised brick, but I’m afraid it was providing some structural support being attached to the chimney.

If you look from the bottom from the 1st floor, you can see the bricks are kind of arching downwards and one of the wood beams is completely loose.

Any information regarding the hearth and structural aspects of it would be highly appreciated!

Thanks!

[IMG_4261](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:uwCx:img_4261.jpg.jpg) [IMG_4137](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:NnjE:img_4137.jpg.jpg) [IMG_2572](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:idY4:img_2572.jpg.jpg)

Guest User | 6 years ago

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yudashasom | 6 years ago

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In my experience, there’s nothing structural about the hearth. I would add support for the new floor and underneath, I would remove the corner bracket and add a joist hanger instead.

Guest User | 6 years ago

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Thanks for the input! When you say “it looks sound”, does that mean you think it’s safe for me to just close up the flooring as is, and I didn’t hurt the integrity by removing the raised hearth?

yudashasom | 6 years ago

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Yes, it looks sound. But I would reinforce just to be safe.