House we are interested has no chimney Breasts in ground floor

stuart45

There must have been thousands of chimney breasts taken out in the 70's without any support. Before then it would be unusual to do it. It wasn't really until the 80's when they realized the issues when a few had started to fail. 
A lot depends on how well the brickwork is tied in. Problems can start many years later, apart from earthquakes next door removing theirs often causes an issue. A mate of mine was working on a piling rig that was thought to be a contributing factor to one that came down in the area.

bbbuyer

Any idea how much it costs to add support to ground floor chimney breasts removed (standard Victorian 2/3 bed).

the vendor found docs for some extension work done at the same time by the same builders as the breast removals but those docs don’t mention chimney 

Bigphil1474

We had a rough quote from a builder of about £1k to £1,500 based on some pics I sent him. It will depend on where it needs supporting, access, current state of brickwork etc. The one we had was fairly straightforward apparently, with decent access and brickwork in good condition. 

stuart45

You'll probably be looking at 2-4k depending on your area, and exact job spec.

bbbuyer

Also the wall where the one of Chimneys was (which was recently painted I think) has some weird cracks. (Chimney was removed at least 9y ago).

may be hard to see in the photo - have no idea if those are just paint cracking or something else

Albermarle

stuart45 said:

You'll probably be looking at 2-4k depending on your area, and exact job spec.

Out of interest how much would it normally cost to take out the first floor chimney breast and stack altogether?

stuart45

It's a similar cost, depending on the size of the stack. It might not be possible if it's a shared stack.

RAS

Neighbours removed chimney, first and second floor chimney breasts but left ground floor. £3k.

Interestingly friends who bought a Victorian terrace in the late 70s weren't even allowed to move into the house until the unsupported chimney stack above the kitchen was sorted. Had to give the building society an undertaking to get it sorted first, and fund it of course.