removing chimney breast, cost ideas please :)

c.redfern

Hi all
we are purchasing our first house, but are not yet in. We have been working out what we need to furnish the house etc. We would like to have the chimney breast taken out from downstairs and upstairs, dont know whether its then best taken out from the loft or to be supported. We may look at having a loft extension in the future so dont know if that makes a difference.

Does anyone have an idea this kind of work costs, we cant have anyone round to look at it as were not yet in the house. The house is a semi detached, wall we want removing is shared with next door, as far as i can remember there was no chimney on the top of the roof, if there was it wasnt obvious and nothing can be seen on the photos i have of the house.

Thanks for reading

Alter_ego

Obviously you'll need the neighbour's cooperation. Check with them first as without them on board it's a non starter.

c.redfern

does it have a big effect on next door do they have to have there's aswell or not? Next door is an 80 year old lady, if it will affect her i dont think she will want to do it

cox377

You will need a party wall agreement between your neighbour and yourselves.

Once that's been agreed, you'll need calculations done by an structural engineer and a building notice logged with your local council.

It's not an overly complicated job, just messy as sin!

J

Mojisola

c.redfern wrote: »

Does anyone have an idea this kind of work costs, we cant have anyone round to look at it as were not yet in the house.

Why not?

I had the buyer visit with several builders to get quotes while I was selling.

c.redfern

I wouldnt of thought of getting someone to quote before we moved in but i messaged the seller and they said thats fine

Peronihull

We had our non party wall bolier chimney removed from our house recently. £2.4k in total for the removal / skip hire and making good on the roof. ours also includes some internal work in extending the wardrobe and making a small airing cupboard in the space where the chimney uses to come up thru the house.

Dan-1987

Are you sure it doesn't share a chimney/stack with next door?

rob7475

we had our chimney removed from dining room, bedroom above and rsj put in loft to support the stack on the roof as it's shared with next door.

You should get a party wall agreement if the chimney backs onto next door - up to you if you want to risk not bothering about that though .

The builders we used are old school friends of mine and charged 2.4k to remove the chimney breasts from two rooms, put RSJ in loft and make good. As part of the job they also removed a load bearing wall between kitchen and dining room and installed RSJ and made good.

If it's fairly straight forward, structural engineers aren't always required. Steel suppliers can often do the calculations for the builders. That's how ours were done and building control signed it off with no problems.