Reinstate part of a chimney breast.

mpet

Son has just had a survey done on a house he has put an offer on. The survey has highlighted the fact that the chimney breast has been removed in the bedroom, but left in the lounge and the chimney stack from loft upwards is still in place.

The survey says
the remaining masonry is poorly supported and additional

strengthening work is needed as soon as possible.

So I'm guessing that this was no professional job! I'm guessing the most sensible thing would be to rebuild the missing chimney breast in the bedroom - at least that way there will be a usable fireplace in the lounge, rather than a decorative feature!

I guess the cost of this is a bit like 'how long is a piece of string', but has anyone had anything similar done - just to get an idea of cost

keystone

Is it a house buyers report or a proper buildings survey? If is an HBR its not worth the paper its printed on as they will find anything they can and overdramatise its seriousness purely on a CYA basis.

Get a proper structural engineer to look at it before spending any money on it.

Having said that what has been found is extremly poor practice IMO even if proper gallows brackets have been used.

Cheers

ey_up

agree with the above. get a proper survey.my experience of home buyer reports are they are not worth it when a proper survey is only a little more. anyway.that's mute now.

not sure how much u want fire in living room but
it's probably cheaper to remove the full lot. only a couple of lads for couple days and often not technical.obviously builder would confirm.

mpet

Yes it is a homebuyers report and it does sound rather 'dramatic' in places. There is also one 'red' item that is totally incorrect with regard to the bolier, so I'm hoping his may be the case.

Son is going to get a builder/structural engineer to take a proper look and advise, then decide from there.

keystone

Good. Oh and BTW the correct, easiest and almost certainly cheapest solution IMO is to take the whole lot out rather than try and reinstate that which is missing.

Cheers