Stacked stone fireplace surround on this? How?

Hey guys...

Doing a fireplace remodel and after tearing out the wall etc I found (of course) that it's not going to be as straightforward as assumed. Couple questions...

I want to remove the old cracked marble and do stackd stone for the actual surround... the problem is that after tearing back the wall, the old fireplace is nowhere near even on both sides and looks to be the sloppiest brick job I've seen in some time. I had a legit fireplace company inspect the actual chimney, and they found no issues, but this thing is just ridiculous. The brick doesn't even go to the same height on each side, and the left side is actually OPEN to the unused part of the chimney.


So, questions:
Should I add brick until the actual fireplace is as even as possible, and then lathe and do the stone? Or would it be a better idea to just get some steel studs and concrete board and make a square "frame" around this thing and just work from there?

Also, as far as that left side being a hole straight through to the chimney (its not the part where smoke would go through), would there ever be any reason for the last guy to have left it like this? I'm gonna wall it up but I wanted to make sure this isn't some common deal I don't know about... It looks like there's actually ancient ash in the thing.

Anything else set off any alarms? As I said it was inspected by a pro, but they could see behind this wall. The chimney is good from the inside at least.

Thanks

 

You can leave the marble in place, reframe so that when you attach cement backer board it is flush with the marble. Then mount your stacked stone so that it bridges the gap. Plan on trying to use a heavy mesh tape on the joint between the marble and cbu. Then reframe the rest however you like.

 

When I did my stacked stone surround, it was drywall around a fireplace insert so drywall is acceptable.

Ill ad a picture later, dont have one handy!

 

Right on.. well the marble is gone so should I just use the cement board all the way to the floor? If it's touching the face of the brick will it be a fire issue at all? I'm assuming it's not considered flammable (within the 8" clearance on the sides for code)? If not I could put the stone on the brick face and line up backer board above that to extend the stacked stone upward... Also, if I was going to put stacked stone all the way to the ceiling, would cement board hold the weight? I'm trying to go with something like the pic below but with Norstone™ stone veneer (and without the stone footer shelf at the bottom)

Would I just frame it with studs as long as they were at least 2" out from the chimney? Just trying to figure out if it would be easier to just frame the whole thing or do half on the brick half on cement board.

Thanks for the replies.

 

Your call on framing vs using the bricks as part of it, either will work. No issues with CBU used near the fireplace as long as the boards you use are rated correctly. Some of the backers have Styrofoam pellets inside it to lighten the weight of the sheets so may change the fire rating. Go with ones that are full concrete or fiber cement.