Re-supporting chimmney

[EmmaT]

A bit more advice needed please. Our victorian cottage (standard two up, two down), has had the chimmney breast raked back in the kitchen, but it's been done without adding any support. The survey picked this up as a possible structural problem, and an architect we've had in to look at some other plans also mentioned it. The chimney itself has been blocked up, and there's no fireplace in the bedroom above (suspect removed at some point). I believe this is a relatively common problem in this type of property?

We don't need/want to reinsate a working chimney, but understand that we need to support the chimney or reinstate the structure in some way. We're happy to build the chimney back down to the floor (at some point, kitchen floor has been concreted). This will mean moving the gas oven that's currently under it, and moving/ replacing/changing some kitchen cupboards and worksurfaces.

I've tried to find out more about this online, but can't see anything relevant. So, any pointers on how we should go about this, what we need to do, any cheaper/easier alternatives, how much this might cost, useful resources??

 

[Mark]

Hi

when you say raked-back what do you mean? is it fully removed or partly removed ?

is the hearth still present upstairs ? is that supported ok ?

A pic would probably make it clear.

 

[Lime]

Do you mean that the chimney breasts has been removed from the interior of the house but the complete chimney stack remains without support?
Depending on what has been removed that could be a very dangerous situation.
If so, there are many ways of giving the chimney support but the best way is to reinstate the chimney breasts.

However has the chimney stack etc been examined to see if it requires support or not?
It is possible that there is satisfactory support, such as a steel lintel somewhere, but it is hidden.
I think you need to have it inspected properly before making any decisions.

 

[middi]

Another possibility you could consider would be to build two nice exposed brick piers under the existing stack and make a feature by incorporating the oven and integrate it into the kitchen design.

it would take one day work just to build the piers plus the cost of a few bricks, a small lintel and some building mortar.I would estimate the total cost to be about £350 ot thereabout.

Obviousely some more costs would be involved in repositioning the oven and rearranging the kitchen around the piers.

 

[EmmaT]

It's just downstairs that it's been taken back - so the chimney breast upstairs is complete, down to about 2ft below the ceiling in the kitchen, at which point it's been taken back brick by brick. Any lintel that may have existed has been removed - so one of the bricks (and all above it) are just supported by the cement attaching it to those either side. I've managed to track down a photo (ignore all the extraneous rubbish, it was a quick snap taken very shortly after moving in!)

I think the idea of just putting back some brick piers is probably the best - but I'm a little lacking in confidence in our skills to DIY that one. Is there a particular size lintel we'd need? I suspect it's not a wide enough gap to keep the oven where it is, but we're happy to move the oven (according to the gasman, the previous owners wanted the hob under the chimney, and couldn't understand why that might not be safe). Would probably then fit narrower drawers into 'hearth'.