Removed chimney breast, repointing?

[markwm]

I've removed an entire chimney stack from top to bottom in a terrace house. The stack needed to be removed because it took up valuable living space and the house in question is too small for 2 stacks.

Anyways, stack gone, the wall left behind is a mess. I intend to dry line the wall with treated timber and then plasterboard. My question is, where the brick on the wall had been exposed to inner of the chimney, it's obviously covered in soot and the lime mortar has turned to a fine power. I can literally keep rubbing it away with my finger. I sprayed it with water but it's impossible to get the mortar wet as the top layer of dust just comes off to reveal yet more dust.

Do I need to repoint or not? I'd say there's about a 1 metre wide section of wall, spanning the entire height of a 2 storey terrace that is like this. The chimneys in the terraces aren't back to back, and the wall in question is 2 course thick party wall.

 

[chuckey]

You have removed a large "buttress" from this wall, leaving an area with poor mortar? Getting soot and the tar of the wall is a right PITA. My best success was with weak caustic soda solution. Brick cleaner won't touch it. I would rake out the joints and repoint. On the stack I did, I then rendered the whole surface, mainly to make good the holes where I had to chop off bricks.
Frank

 

[plumbers mate]

OOh, you tormentor. I've been trying for a month to get someone to give me a price for removal of a chimney breast.
Though only the bottom half.
The blokes who've been suck their teeth, look at the structural calcs, scratch their heads and are never seen or heard from again.

 

[markwm]

OOh, you tormentor. I've been trying for a month to get someone to give me a price for removal of a chimney breast.
Though only the bottom half.
The blokes who've been suck their teeth, look at the structural calcs, scratch their heads and are never seen or heard from again.

We initially only considered removing the bottom half. That's much more expensive though because you need to support the rest. I've removed 2 now, the first time I got a builder to do it and I helped. He wouldn't consider removing the bottom half of the stack without an engineers report, but he was happy to remove the whole stack.

It's dead easy too.

 

[Lime]

I hasten to add there are some chimney stacks that are not easy to remove and require additional and substantial support for upper floors that hang on the stack.
Some upper grates are very substantial and require skillful removal too.
Then there is the problem that a great many people do not appreciate to do with party walls.
There are laws to deal specifically with any substantial work on party walls (the party wall act 1996) and any damage suffered can lead to solicitors and court cases.
At the end of the day while I appreciate that fireplaces and stacks can occupy a great deal of space removal does little to improve a future sale and can put people off.
Also, even though removal in some cases is very simple, the work requires building inspection and other paperwork these days.

the party wall act 1996
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/133214.pdf

With regard to the dry dust problem I would use a fine pressure spray (as used in greenhouses etc.) to wet the wall with a small amount of washing up liquid in the water.
Prolonged spraying will wet it eventually without flooding the house.