Chimney breast alignment

CardiffCrank

Exchanging on Friday and just went round to our planned new house to think about where everything will go. We noticed that the chimney breast in one of the upstairs rooms is about 50cm offset from the ground floor chimney breast. This means the alcove near the window is unusually wide but the one near the internal wall is very narrow and it seems it has been covered with a fake wall.
Does this seem normal? It doesn't make any sense to me and I'm worried we need to investigate. Wouldn't the normal plan be to support the first floor on the ground floor? Will call surveyor in the morning, who didn't flag it, but he may not come back in time so I'd like some opinions!

stuart45

Is there a fireplace upstairs? Brickwork can be dropped off inbetween the floors to save materials.

Section62

CardiffCrank said:

 Wouldn't the normal plan be to support the first floor on the ground floor?

Do you mean the first floor part of the chimney is so far across it isn't above the ground floor part at all?

As well as stuart45's point about dropping brickwork off, sometimes the flue can be built with a diagonal section of stepped brickwork so the upper part is offset from the lower.  This is quite commonly seen in loft spaces, but theoretically could also be done between ground and first floor (etc) if circumstances required it.

The usual reason for doing something like that would be having the fireplace centred in a downstairs reception room, whilst having the external part of the chimney on or close to the ridge line.

CardiffCrank

Section62 said:

CardiffCrank said:

 Wouldn't the normal plan be to support the first floor on the ground floor?

Do you mean the first floor part of the chimney is so far across it isn't above the ground floor part at all?

As well as stuart45's point about dropping brickwork off, sometimes the flue can be built with a diagonal section of stepped brickwork so the upper part is offset from the lower.  This is quite commonly seen in loft spaces, but theoretically could also be done between ground and first floor (etc) if circumstances required it.

The usual reason for doing something like that would be having the fireplace centred in a downstairs reception room, whilst having the external part of the chimney on or close to the ridge line.

The first floor part is more or less half on top of the ground floor. It's the same width, so I don't think there has been any savings in materials. However, I do think your last point might be the reason. This is the rear room, which is smaller, so the rear chimney, has further to travel to get to the ridge line. And it is perfectly centred downstairs.

Thanks both!

CardiffCrank

stuart45 said:

Is there a fireplace upstairs? Brickwork can be dropped off inbetween the floors to save materials.

Raised I didn't answer this: no fireplace upstairs and I would be surprised if there had been previously. 1950s council semi.

stuart45

If there's a chimney stack with the pots in place, it will tell you how many flues you have.

CardiffCrank

stuart45 said:

If there's a chimney stack with the pots in place, it will tell you how many flues you have.

Can you tell we're FTBs yet?! Yes, two flues, so just the two fireplaces downstairs. This one has been capped off.

stuart45

Interesting, but difficult to know without being on site. Corbelling over can only be a third of a brick each course, so there isn't much room in the floor space to move it that much.
However if it was built like that the odds are it's been done properly.
Council houses used to have a Clerk of Works to oversee construction that would usually be a lot stricter than in the private sector.

CardiffCrank

stuart45 said:

Interesting, but difficult to know without being on site. Corbelling over can only be a third of a brick each course, so there isn't much room in the floor space to move it that much.
However if it was built like that the odds are it's been done properly.
Council houses used to have a Clerk of Works to oversee construction that would usually be a lot stricter than in the private sector.

The house certainly looks solid! My only concern would be that they might have done something dodgy during the loft conversion, but this seems like it would be a ridiculous thing to do. And the loft is the only thing that comes with building regs completion.