Removing chimney breast

last year

Hi, looking for some advice please,
We would like to remove the large 1.5m chimney breast in the living room. We've been told this will require a steel beam.
The chimney also runs through our master bedroom (creating an alcove) then obviously up into loft. The half of breast not containing flue creates a skinny linen cupboard on the landing.
Would you just remove the ground floor as desired for living room design. Or would you remove the whole stack through all floors and loft, then recreate breast in bedroom with plasterboard thus allowing the full width to be used to create larger linen cupboard on landing? Is there any chance removing the whole lot and making good on both floors and loft/roof would work out cheaper than putting in the beam required to support upper of stack if we only remove the ground floor portion? Anyone have any experience of such a project?
Thanks

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Comments (6)

Ruth House
Original Author
last year
Should have said, chimney runs through centre of detached house so no impact on neighbours etc.
Ruth House
Original Author
last year
Or I guess another option is to remove from inside house, but put the steel beam in loft floor to hold up the rest of stack? I'm guessing that would mean no scaffolding required as would be leaving stack in loft and outside roof alone.
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You need to find out a bit more from your neighbour. Most likely you have a shared chimney stack on the roof that will remain but there is likely more than one chimney pot and your neighbour will be capping one as he probably intends to take out some of his chimney breast further down and put in a beam to support the chimney further up. This shouldn't affect you as you likely have a separate chimney breast on your side of the party wall- it is most likely only the visible bit on the roof that is shared and this is unlikely to change much -although he can probably do it without removing the pot.
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I think we were quoted around £1,500 per chimney breast as well around 2 years ago ( London ) but it was done as part of an extension and loft project so no idea if skip costs were included in that figure. It's usually removed from top/1st floor first and finally the ground floor. You usually require a steel beam to hold up any remaining chimney breast in any floors above. Our steel beam has been installed in between loft floors joists, then the first floor chimney breast was removed followed by the ground floor. Our neighbours have only removed a ground floor chimney breast so they have a steel beam to hold up the chimney breast on first floor however the beam then takes up some of their ceiling height off their kitchen. The only way to avoid this if you want the ceiling all flushed is to install the beam in between the joist of ground floor ceiling and first floor floor. You also need Building Control to sign off the work and Structural Engineer calculations to work out the size of the steel beam required which means additional costs. Run a mile if a builder says you don't need any of those. Also, if it's not signed off by Building Control you may have difficulty selling your house in the future as the surveyor will point out the chimney breast removal during the survey and the solicitor will bring this to the buyers attention. Just get a few quotes in and see what the builders say :-).
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Do you have x3 doors into your lounge? Switch your door openings so that they open up against the walls if at all possible. This should help you feel less like you’re falling into the furniture when you enter the room. Do you need to have your TV on the opposite wall? Would it fit into the alcove to the right of the fireplace on a bracket that you can move? It then becomes less of a feature and let’s the fire become the feature of the room.
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Sarah M
last year
Hi, we're about to take out a chimney breast from our living room as part of a bigger renovation. Ours is about 1.5m in the living room as well but narrows quite quickly to about 50cm on the first floor. We didn't get detailed quotes but both our architect and builder said they'd estimate it would end up costing about the same to either remove on ground floor only or remove everything. We decided the upheaval in the upstairs rooms wasn't worth it for an extra 50cm x 50cm of space. Hope that helps!
Ruth House
Original Author
last year
Thank you Sarah, that is really helpful info, I appreciate you're reply. Good luck with your renovations
ali270
last year
Our chimney breast was a similar size to yours . It was in the middle of our house and went through our bedroom , where it took up the same amount of space . We removed it right to the roof . Absolutely no regrets . The space we gained made the rooms look so much larger and easier to arrange furniture. Dust ….yes but otherwise less hassle than putting in a beam .
Ruth House
Original Author
last year
Thank you ali270 , do you know how much the job cost? Did they need scaffolding to roof, I've heard that is the expensive bit.

Removing chimney breast

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