Can I remove fake chimney’s mantel piece?

[Sheisamum]

Hi,
Do I need to consult with a structural engineer to remove an existing chimney and the mantel piece (see photo)? I don’t intend on removing the chimney breast - we’ll put a TV there. Any thoughts? for context, it’s a semi-detached house and we moved in a few months ago.

What do you mean by removing the chimney? The chimney breast is the chimney. If you just mean the surround, you can remove that with no issues.

I mean the surround and the actual chimney (black square at the bottom).

Thats a lovely fireplace - why remove it? You can put the tv above?

Do you mean the surround and the hearth? Would you be leaving the grate? Is it a gas fire? Personally i would leave it all. I love a fire and fireplace.

I think your terminology is confusing people. The chimney is the bit up on top of your roof and the flue down to the fireplace. What you seem to be talking about is removing the fireplace inside your living room? Do you want to block up the flue? If so, I think that there’s more involved than just taking off the surround and bricking up the hearth — I think you may need to cap and/vent the chimney at the top etc.

Yes, sorry I might not know the correct terminology… I want to remove the mantel piece and the fireplace…

you’d definitely want to block it. I’ve lived in lots of houses with fireplaces and you get regular soot falls through them even when they haven’t been used in 10+ years.