Best method of fixing oak fire surround.

[lincslad]

Hi all,

I have been making a solid oak beam fire surround, the uprights are 6” x 6” and the mantle is 8” x 8”.

The uprights connect to the mantle with mortice and tenon jounts that are secured with oak pegs from behind (i don’t want them visible).

Now i’m looking at the best method of fixing it to the wall (plaster over blockwork).

The oak is part air dried green and is very heavy and is obviously going to move so i was thinking of resin bonding 12mm stud into the blockwork leaving a 4”-6” projection from the wall to slide into the beam (unbonded for movement) and a number of flat strap brackets fixed to the back of the timber then screwed to the wall!

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Job and Knock]

Sounds reasonable. Resin bonded threaded rod should work well enough. For an 8in deep mantle I'd be thinking more in terms of 6in deep holes drilled so that they rise slightly from the rear face to the front face. That way they'll tend to wedge themselves onto the steel rod. Any bracketry or builders band can be buried below the level of the plasterwork and plastered-in.