Considering having our chimney breast removed either at ground floor level only or both upstairs and down. Anyone had this done and got an idea of cost and how disruptive it will be? Assuming it is a very dirty job! Our intention would be to completely redecorate and replace flooring afterwards
Yep, had the whole chimney taken down in the kitchen. Very, very messy job but the space released both downstairs and up was amazing. They'll need to scaffold the outside to take down the outside chimney and then patch up. Cost was around £5K. Berkshire prices.
In some cases you could leave the stack in but you will require structural calculations to support what’s above so could get complicated and structural engineer will cost. if you get rid of chimney stack then there is no weight above and if double Storey both chimney breast will have to go it will be messy but if old house there could be a lot of old soot deposits especially if there has been coal fires in the past
As Wales said you'll need a structural report before the builders will touch it. We considered leaving it but it needed a large RSJ putting in which was costly. Structural reports are not cheap. £400 typically.
It is a shared stack so we'd have to go down that route. Did they manage to contain the mess to the affected room or did affect the whole house?
Depends on how well your dust containment is set up. Its a very dusty job Make sure your contractors take the spoil away
Had this done myself last Jan. We had just the downstairs section removed and the rest supported with a bracket. It is indeed a very messy job, but the extra space has totally transformed the living room.The lads who did mine were great and had dust sheets blocking off everywhere as even with the living room door shut dust gets out! They also took away all rubbish and included the price of plastering and leaving the room all ready to decorate. Our Chimney isn't on a party wall so that wasn't a consideration. We paid £2800, had a quote lower and one higher but the builders had been recommended to me. It was PDS building and roofing and I would reccomend them to anyone. Had them back already myself for a little job recently. Edit sorry forgot to say this also included a certificate of the work being carried out according to building regs.
This is really helpful, cheers. We're in York so guess I'll need to look around up here but just the advice I was after
That’s way cheaper than I’d have thought! Never considered it at all but starting to think about it now.
If you leave the stack in, it’s relatively straight forward taking the breast out, depending on the support required. Which is either an RSJ or gallows brackets. IMO RSJ is better. Whilst folk do still take them out, not as many do these days, as it is thought the loss of character of the house and log burner potential are missed.
All down to personal preference I suppose. We really wanted the extra space and could change the lay out of the room. We would ever used any kind of fire/burner, would be purely aesthetic. My brother has a log burner and I know he would never part with it.
The potential cost had put us off for a while too. Then when we got the quotes we decided it wasn't too bad. Of course you have the cost of redecorating on top but we were due anyway.
So we got lucky and the neighbours also wanted the chimney stack gone, so we were able to lose that and the chimney breast in our bedroom and the living room. Messy job but totally worth it. Its given us so much more space.
Look mate, if you want your 'chimney' removed and your 'wife' wants her breasts removed, that's fine. We're all trans fk*cing centric these days, but you've got to realise we're still Barnsley. We're well up with the ideology, it's just our language isn't exactly PC. So feel free to wax lyrical about your new age sex explois, but for the love of God, stop posting pictures of your gay sofas. They're fk*cing horrible.
Bumped into our local Joiner a couple of weeks back. He’d been working in a house where the builders had been asked to take out the chimney breast. He was horrified. Said not only was it the messiest/ worst job possible for a builder, but that it totally ruined the structure and character of the house. He wasn’t a fan!