removing chimney breasts

faisal_uk

hi

we are looking to buy a house, and one that we have have seen has chimney breasts in 4 rooms.

does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to get these removed in order to create more space in the rooms?

i would just like to know your experiences if anyone else has had this done, and also a rough indication of the cost involved to get someone in to do the work.

thanks

mountainofdebt

Before you remove them you have to make sure that they aren't load bearing (a structural engineer would be able to tell you this) or otherwise the consequences could be disasterous!

My parents had two chimney breasts removed years ago when I was a kid and I can still remember the mess from the soot to this day!!!!

mx-3

I removed one myself.

I would never do it again. The amount of work and dirt is dreadful.

skintchick

I've just had a chimney breast removed from my lounge and the smaller one above it in my bedroom taken out too.

It took a week, was REALLY dirty, and cost me £2,500. I have had to paint the walls myself but they were plastered, obviously.

Mine were load bearing so I had to have an RSJ put in the loft, and a support built in the lounge (RSJ down there was only built into chimney breast, not the wall, and house nearly fell down! That's council builders for you.)

BTW - that was the cheapest builder locally.

If you do have it done - go on holiday while they do it. I did. The noise and dirt is horrendous and it took me weeks to clear all the dust up, and it had gone into every room in the house, despite doors being shut!

Oh, and remember you will then have to re-carpet as you will have holes.

It's a big, expensive, dirty job. Think hard.

Somerset

faisal

I'm getting some work to the house done and this subjuct came up with the architect. I've got a chimney breast going up through three rooms. He reckoned it would cost about £ 1,200.00 to take down BUT said it could structually undermine the house/houses either side ( terrece ). So I'd have to get a structural engineer to check out whether it would be safe to do or not.

I'm not going to bother.

The_Biff

I love chimney breasts. Hang on to them - when there's no gas & oil left you can start re-using them. Also good for ventilation espec in the summer.
Try dried flowers in the bottom.
Where did all those lovely tiled fireplacxes go to - they are quite valuable now.

skintchick

Sadly, mine had previously housed a back boiler and was not a lovely open fireplace.

My house is a mid-terrace and I didn;t need a structural engineer - the builder dealt with it all.

Bossyboots

I didn't use a structural engineer either. Our builder checked it over and worked out what needed doing and where any supports should go and he did all the work.

What we did have to apply for though was building regulations and an inspector came out before work was started to confirm with the builder what he was doing and okayed it. He then came back when the breasts were down and the support in. Our builder was not allowed to do the finishing until the inspector had passed the work which took him all of two minutes and that included going up and down the stairs.

We too are mid-terraced. It was a good few years ago now and I can't remember the cost. My neighbour started his himself after seeing ours but couldn't cope with shifting the rubble and the sheer mess involved and our builder finished it off for him. I don['t remember any mess other than some dust when it was all finished but then our builder was an exceptionally tidy one on all the jobs he has done for us.