Chimney - how to support in loft

HappyG1rl

The chimney breasts have been removed in our house but some of the brickwork is still in the loft and appears to be unsupported. I don't know when it was done and it may have been done for years. It hasn't fallen down but can anyone tell me what should be done to support it?

silvercar

:eek: :eek:

Gallows brackets are the easiest way. Don't know what they look like but my surveyor said I may need them to support a removed chimney breast, until he went in the loft and found the chimney had been totally removed.

If gallows brackets won't offer enough support then you need to look at a wider support (RSJ?) to take the weight.

Removing a chimney breast requires building regs approval, so your surveyor should have spotted this when you bought the house.

Poppycat

I sure the one in our house had a lintel to support it as we had a open plan lounge/living room

You have to make sure its right because when you come to sell and survey pulls up on this it may cause problems, a friend of mine had the exact same issue a few months back.

Doozergirl

To be sure that it is safe, you need a structural engineer to come and calculate the load and the subsequent support it needs, for you. You can't guess these things.

marybishop

And you will need Building Regs approval so best to speak to the Building Control Dept at your local authority. Plus if you are doing works to the party wall (if you're in a semi/terraced house) then you will need to serve Party Wall notice on your neighbour.

real1314

You'd only use a lintel/rsj if there were appropriately sited load bearing walls.

You'll probably have to use the brackets.

Hitch

The chimney at the mo is corbelled into the wall, works on a cantilever sort of principle.
Gallows brackets as mentioned above are usually the norm, as the majority of the weight will still be held on the wall after the tapered section is removed.

A gallows bracket is simply 3 pieces of steel angle welded together, a bit like a heavy duty shelf bracket really.

Simple as that reall, but whatever you decide to do, it will need approval from the bco.