Chimney Stack resting on lintels and gallows brackets

stuart45

Sounds like they left the hearth in. Often reinforced concrete cantilevered into the party wall, so they probably thought it would be too much trouble to get out, and would get away with leaving it in. On older properties a brick arch was sometimes used.

silvercar

stuart45 said:

Sounds like they left the hearth in. Often reinforced concrete cantilevered into the party wall, so they probably thought it would be too much trouble to get out, and would get away with leaving it in. On older properties a brick arch was sometimes used.

Unlike the OP, this chimney is central to the house, so no party wall issue and we know for sure there is nothing left above the ground floor. 1930s build, may have been an arch but certainly wasn’t anymore. If I had actually injured myself I would have done further investigation on whether it was the builder or the structural engineer that was liable, someone should have spotted the risk. 

HAWKLANDER

Thanks everybody for you help on this. I manged to get up in the loft myself after getting some protective clothing, loft boards, a facemask and goggles, as I had to move some insulation and make my way through the low section between the rafters on the party wall. I took some photos usng a level fixed onto my phone camera and I took the pics from the height of the top of the bracket as close to the party wall as I could get to give a proper perspective of the angle of the horizontal part of the bracket. The results are quite good and shows the bracket is not too bad. It looks slightly bent down at the end, well past the lintels resting on it. The party wall looks straight and not bowing. The brackets are absolutely huge things and are bolted into the wall well. There are no signs of a gap between the vertical part of the bracket and the wall. I spoke to some friends who suggested I go back up every couple of months over the next year, and after any storms, to check whether it is moving from it's current position. What do you all make of the new photos I manged to take? I crawled through and took some close ups of the bracket and the lintels too.

HAWKLANDER

I also managed to put a grid over the photo to check the horizontal lines with the horizontal part of the bracket. This photo was taken using a level attached to my phone and at the hight of the horizontal part af the bracket:

HAWKLANDER

GDB2222 said:

I don’t want to be picky about your photography skills, but the whole thing looked less alarming once I turned the photo so the verticals were more vertical! 

A typical water tank these days would store 200 litres, and weigh 200 kilograms. I’m not sure how that helps, as you don’t know what the brackets were used for before?

The risk depends what is underneath the stack if it drops. Is it a bedroom that you use? 50 bricks weigh 100 kilograms, so you can take it from there, allowing for mortar, tiles, the party wall … Those two lintels must weigh a bit!   A few kilos, falling from a height, would cause you a lot of damage, let alone a few hundred. 

Thanks for your help and this information. I have taken some better photos now myself which hopefully will be easier to analyse. On the first floor it is our landing outside the bathroom which is directly underneath it. On the ground floor it is our dining room. The worst nightmare I'm having about it is it coming down whilst we are all sat in the dining room having dinner.