The house I recently purchased once had a wood burning stove in the living room. To accomodate this stove the built a brick pedestal that sticks out about 4 feet from the wall and is about 6 inches off the ground. Further there is a brick facade that runs from floor to ceiling along the wall.
Whoever installed it did a terrible terrible job as the drywall adjacent to it has close to a 1 inch gap on all sides. Further, the house has an old forced hot water baseboard heating system. The drywall appears to be built on top of the baseboard so I would guess that there is another wall immediately (like 2 inches) behind the wall currently visible. It also looks like they built the brick support over the baseboard and that the baseboard actually runs through the base of the platform.
I want to get rid of the thing, because all it does is take up floor space really. How can I make sure that this thing is not a structural element? I can take a hammer and chisel to it just fine, but I want to make sure I don't bring the 2nd floor down on top of me when I do it.
EDIT: Added a picture of the baseboard heater running into the brick and a picture of the same baseboard against a different wall for comparison's sake.
-Mike
Whoever installed it did a terrible terrible job as the drywall adjacent to it has close to a 1 inch gap on all sides. Further, the house has an old forced hot water baseboard heating system. The drywall appears to be built on top of the baseboard so I would guess that there is another wall immediately (like 2 inches) behind the wall currently visible. It also looks like they built the brick support over the baseboard and that the baseboard actually runs through the base of the platform.
I want to get rid of the thing, because all it does is take up floor space really. How can I make sure that this thing is not a structural element? I can take a hammer and chisel to it just fine, but I want to make sure I don't bring the 2nd floor down on top of me when I do it.
EDIT: Added a picture of the baseboard heater running into the brick and a picture of the same baseboard against a different wall for comparison's sake.
-Mike