Removal of chimney

Michael Little

Michael Little

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Mike
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Hi all, I'm in the process of buying my first house & the chimney is in the middle of the house and provides a fireplace in the living room and the kitchen, we would like to remove the chimney from the kitchen and the upstairs bedroom, has anyone had any work done like this? if so roughly what were the costs involved?
 
Sounds like ours. We looked into it and the whole roof was supported by it. Think umbrella. We wanted to remove both downstairs fireplaces. Major surgery, more of a rebuild. So ours is still there. We extended rooms elsewhere.
Sound like you only want to remove one side (upstairs and kitchen) . Thats actually quite common. You need a structural engineer/architect and a good builder though. They need to support the weight from above and the stress from the weight of the remaining fireplaces on the other side.
Definitely not a cowboy job.
 
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Only a builder or surveyor will know how the front room, kitchen and bedroom chimneys are inter connected. And what work will be needed to be done to replace the support that the removed parts were giving to the entire structure.
it can be simple or diabolical. But certainly doable.
The best course of action is to get several quotes from local builders.
Remember that quotes vary for many reasons that have nothing to do with the actual work involved. Such as how busy they are and if they don't realy want to take the job on. So you need a minimum of three quotes to get anywhere near a good price for the job.
 
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I've had [ in conjunction with my neighbour ] all my chimney stacks lowered and sealed off.

The joint stack turned out when the builder got up there was about to fall in any serious wind. !!

My next-door neighbour wanted to keep his fireplaces open - but when he was told how bad the condition was, decided to agree to have the joint stack lowered and sealed. The one in the centre of his house was lowered , repaired where necessary and retained as a flue.

I now have no possibility of open fires. The Central Heating boiler has its own flue.

It wasn't a cheap job - my share was over £1000 - but of course we needed scaffolding as well
 
We recently had our complete roof replaced and had two chimneys completely removed at the gable end down to below roof line as they were in danger of collapse, also we wanted a super solid replacement, best thing we ever did. Removing a chimney throughout the house would be awkward but no impossible, the main thing is reinstating floor joists where the chimney used to be, the weight of the house is supported by the read retaining walls, you would need a structural engineer to have a good look at the job to certify it.
 
Yeah I've had this done. 2 chimneys plus the fireplaces below them. It was quite a big job but it wasn't as expensive as I expected. It was a simple one so smash out some bricks and cart away, use arcoprops to stop the house falling down in the meantime. You'll probably want a fair bit of making good to walls and floor as well plus plastering.

It's a job for a builder - but we didn't bother with a structural engineer. Bricks are often pretty simple.
 
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