Chimney breast was removed. Options

Nurdis

Hello all.
We are buying a house where a downstairs portion of a chimney breast was removed in the kitchen.
The breast above on bedroom is still in place.
Building regs/ council never seem to have been made aware.
Our surveyor says it’s likely there are beams in place as there is a down stand on the ceiling corresponding in position and width to where the stack would have been.

If I buy the house and want to make sure I don’t have any issues in the future when we come to sell etc due to having no building sign off (could be that it was done pre 1985) what are my options?

Presumably the foundation where the chimney breast was removed is still in place. Could I simply put a chimney breast back in place built up to the ceiling?
Building regs etc were never aware it was removed so I presume wouldn’t need to now it has been restored?
 This is on a party wall. Does that make a difference? 

I guess any sale in the future would just have a survey done and not mention a chimney breast at all as there will then be one downstairs and upstairs? 

I know the other option of getting the removal signed off etc, but this seems like a can of worms if they find it not done completely as they would like it and I would rather not involve them if I can help it as the previous work on removal was done without there knowledge.

thank you for any thoughts and advice

jackieblack

When we bought a house with the same, we decided just to remove the rest of the chimney upstairs. It wasn’t expensive and gave us an extra corner in the bathroom above, enabling us to install a shower stall. 

Nurdis

jackieblack said:

When we bought a house with the same, we decided just to remove the rest of the chimney upstairs. It wasn’t expensive and gave us an extra corner in the bathroom above, enabling us to install a shower stall. 

Thank you.

was this on a party wall though? Could see issues removing whole breast and chimney all the way up if shared.

Thanks 

Davesnave

You can remove as much chimney as you like on your side of the party wall, up into the loft if you prefer, but whatever's left must now be supported on  a suitable steel joist, itself adequately built into the house. You ought to arrange a party wall agreement with your neighbour if you decide to go this way. Who knows, the neighbour might even agree to taking the whole stack out to gain space, going halves on costs, but neighbours vary!

 You'd get a structural engineer to design and check the work that's done and your council could sign it off. They won't be interested in the work done long ago.

There's nothing to stop you reinstating the full chimney breast of course; you will just lose the space the previous owner created.

Doozergirl

Contacting building control isn't a big deal. 

Do you want a chimney breast back in the room?  If you do, then rebuild and no one will be any the wiser. 

If you just want to be sure it's safe then get a structural engineer out and expose part of of the work.  They can give the yay or nay as to whether it is safe.  If you have that in writing, then there's no need to involve building control after all this time.  You can offer the letter from the structural engineer certifying its safety and offer a £35 indemnity policy agains the, frankly, non existent risk of enforcement. 

The other option is to support it to current regs.  It sounds like what you have would have met previous regs, but not the current one.  

The main question is safety, not the presence of a certificate.   The only person qualified to tell you if it is safe is the structural engineer!  Building inspectors are not qualified and only go on what structural engineers say in the paperwork you hand to them.  

Keep_pedalling

Nurdis said:

jackieblack said:

When we bought a house with the same, we decided just to remove the rest of the chimney upstairs. It wasn’t expensive and gave us an extra corner in the bathroom above, enabling us to install a shower stall. 

Thank you.

was this on a party wall though? Could see issues removing whole breast and chimney all the way up if shared.

Thanks 

My neighbours have done this on their side and my side is still in place, so it should not cause too many issues. In this case it was absolutely necessary as the previous neighbours unbeknown to me had removed the downstairs portion with a DIY bodge job, with no support in place.

theartfullodger

This isn't in Twickenham is it??

Nurdis

No not bear twickenham at all.

to be honest I don’t mind really if the breast is put back. I just want whatever is going to cause me less hassle and expense long term when we come to sell the house.

I just think putting a chimney breast in is a fixed cost I can get quoted for. Where as if I try to get regularisation who knows what will be required.

this is why I wonder if just putting it back is the easiest and cheapest option?

Doozergirl

The easiest and cheapest way is to leave it and offer the indemnity policy when you come to sell.   The further away the building work becomes in time, the less important it is.  

As a personal thing, in all the houses we've worked on, I've only seen one chimney breast that I've wanted to remove, because it was seriously impeding the ability to place a bed in a sensible position in a room.  So I'd probably end up putting one back in as a matter or taste.