Chimney Breasts

dirtyred619

Hi all

I need to knock a hole approx. 1m x 2m in a chimney breat that runs through my kitchen so that I can fit a oven and hob into a new kitchen, any ideas how much I should be looking at to get someone to do this or is it something that I could possibly do myself with a few freinds?

On a similar note i also need to take out an old fire surround and gas fire from another chimney breast and get the wall ready so that I can fit a "hole in the wall" electric fire. Again I would have had a go myself at taking out the surround but the pipework seems to be embedded somehow into it, so agian any ideas how much this should cost to be taken out?

Thanks
Mike

plumb1_2

dirtyred619 wrote:

Hi all

I need to knock a hole approx. 1m x 2m in a chimney breat that runs through my kitchen so that I can fit a oven and hob into a new kitchen, any ideas how much I should be looking at to get someone to do this or is it something that I could possibly do myself with a few freinds?

On a similar note i also need to take out an old fire surround and gas fire from another chimney breast and get the wall ready so that I can fit a "hole in the wall" electric fire. Again I would have had a go myself at taking out the surround but the pipework seems to be embedded somehow into it, so agian any ideas how much this should cost to be taken out?

Thanks
Mike

First get a Corgi reg plumber to disconnect the gas supply and blank off.
If you are making the fire opening larger you will need to put a concreat lintol in to support the brickwork, the same goes for the opening for the oven.
IMO you will have to be good at diy to do this, as the opening will/may have to be supported with props(small acrows).
And i wouldn't have a bunch of friends all sticking their 2 penny worth in, you should only need 1 other person, as you will need to concentrate one the job.
IMO get a couple of quotes from builders.

catkins

I know someone who took a chunk out of the chimney breast and is now facing a £10,000 bill to put it right. They have managed to cause damage to all 3 floors so be careful.

scorour

dirtyred619 wrote:

On a similar note i also need to take out an old fire surround and gas fire from another chimney breast and get the wall ready so that I can fit a "hole in the wall" electric fire. Again I would have had a go myself at taking out the surround but the pipework seems to be embedded somehow into it, so agian any ideas how much this should cost to be taken out?

Thanks
Mike

Mike,
I did the same as you are planning, had a on old gas fire with back boiler, I wanted my Plasma on the chimney breast and the wife wanted a hole in the wall gas fire.

First thing I would do (as suggested) get a corgi regiestered person round for a quote. I asked for a quote to rip out the old fire and back boiler, reroute the gas pipe, and then fit the new fire when I had modified the hole for the correct height and width, the cost for this for me was £150 (worth every penny for safety reasons).

I modified the hole in the chimney breast myself, just got some advice from a friend who was a builder (but to busy to do it for me :-( ). I consider myself an average DIYer and it took me a lot longer than a builder would, but the result was excellent. Just had to widen the gap by two inches, raise the lintol by about 10 inches and add 2 rows of bricks from the floor.

I don't mind doing all labour type jobs, but when it comes to gas and leccy, always get someone who knows what they are doing.

dooj

Be very careful, i went work one day and left OH to tap a few tiles off from around the old fire place in our house. When i got home from work, the chimney had all fell in with bricks and soot all over (i was furious).

Old houses (a victorian one like ours) tend to have the original fireplaces filled in with lots of loose fitting bricks and any other old crap then plastered over to make a smaller hole so be very careful. We had to have a lintel put in and then new bricks to build up the space for a smaller fire to be fitted.

Keldin

I had a chimney breast opened up in my kitchen for a rayburn and that was suppose to be a days work for the builder but turned into a day and a half as teh chiney was completely bricked up all th eway through. Your's will probably only be a day. this included having a concrete lintel fitted.
We used a builder who worked through our local fireplace shop. They booked work for him and we paid him direct. He did all of their fireplace work and working on chimneys only for the last few years he had loads of experience. Maybe try your local fireplace shop.
Cost will depend on what the going rate for a days work is in your area plus a lintel.

K

Volcano

That's a big hole! Chimneys are not good news due to the immense weight contained in them, raising/widening existing fireplaces is easier as you normally have room to manoevure the props.

I'd get a good builder in for this one, at least they're insured if the whole thing comes down.

vansboy

We had to widen this opening for our open fire - previousley it was just ordinary gas fire, sized.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8541893.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

The problem mentioned, earlier, with loose bricks & bits of old rubble, meant that about 3 feet above the opening, had to be re-built - TAKE CARE!!

VB

dirtyred619

Cheers for all the replies, I thought it might be trickier than it seemed so I looked for alternative fires and have found I very nice wall hanging fire for the living room (scorer, same as me the plasmas going above it!) so I'm getting a plumber/gas fitter to disconnect the old gas fire and removing the fire and surround myself. To 'block' up the old hole where the fire was I am going to plasterboard it up and fit a new section of skirting before decorating and hopefully jobs a good un!

I still need the chimney breast in the kitchen doing but it'll have to wait for awhile now as the new fire cost a fortune!

plumb1_2

vansboy wrote:

We had to widen this opening for our open fire - previousley it was just ordinary gas fire, sized.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8541893.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

The problem mentioned, earlier, with loose bricks & bits of old rubble, meant that about 3 feet above the opening, had to be re-built - TAKE CARE!!

VB

Why the Snake???????????????

frugglewump

I keep reading that the problem with altering / removing chimney breasts is the support for the chimney. How difficult is it to also remove the chimney? Are you allowed?