Removing part of a chimney brest

[Anonymous]

Any advice on removing a portion of a 5' wide firts floor chimney brest which is built out of the party wall in a 1930s semi. I wreckon I can remove about 3' on the right of the brest and leave the brest downstairs and in the loft, which will still be connected, therefore I can still use the fire downstairs without lining the flue? worth trying, or destin for failure?

 

[Anonymous]

Partly removing chimney breasts is a well known pastime of enthusiastic DIYrs to make rooms bigger.
Of course it can be done, provided carefull consideration is given to the extra stresses you will be creating in the party wall and appropriate support is constructed to counterbalance the upper portion in the loft,
You should advice your neighbour as to what you intend to do, as a matter of courtesy, if you are not totally sure about any other implications or complications, you may need expert advise.

Whilst is very easy to partly take a chimney down, is not so easy to make sure the rest will not come tumbling down.

The common sense approach is best.

 

[Anonymous]

..............also I am not sure where you stand with regards to any planning required or informing any insurance or mortgage company.

Hopefully someone here can advise you on this.

 

[Anonymous]

My neighbours had their chimney breast removed on the 1st floor recently.

You will need a Party Wall Act agreement with your neighbours (very well explained on link below). For your and their peace of mind, you should get a structural engineer to determine the best method of supporting the chimney breast above, and provide calculations to show that it will work. I'm pretty certain you will also need building regs approval. And if you're not sure what you're doing, then get a builder in to do it!

Also, prepare your neighbours for a certain amount of dust coming through, and quite possibly also bits of plaster falling off their side of the wall.

In my neighbour's case they had an RSJ parallel to the party wall to support the breast above.

I've no idea whether your chimney will actually work once you've done this... And you won't be conserving the property in its original glory of course...



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