Advice on chimney stack removal

[albiedill]

Hi all.

This is my first post so apologies if in the wrong place etc but thanks in advance for any advice. I have owned the house about 18 months, this is my first renovation so learning as I go! The upstairs bathroom has an old chimney breast tucked into the corner. There is no downstairs chimney breast (which was presumably removed when the kitchen was extended about 20 years ago) and there is no chimney stack outside. There is an RSJ running underneath the breast in the upstairs floor but the bricks actually in contact with it are easily wiggleable (yes its a word!). It is a shared wall with my neighbours.

The chimney breast is toothed into the wall and my hope was to cut down the bricks and not need to touch the party wall... Call me naive!

The chimney breast stops at the height of the bathroom ceiling with no brickwork extending above the rafters, and do not appear to be providing any support to rafters (in most places the old laths sits between brick and rafter). I have been able to take away the top bricks easily (the house is over 100 years old so the mortar is worryingly crumbly) and I can see the neighbour's plasterboard above where the party wall seems to stop below the ceiling joists (evidently they have already removed their chimney breast but since the house is rented out I don't have the details)!

Do I need building control approval given there is nothing left of the chimney structure above and below so no additional supports needed, and the neighbours have already removed theirs?

Thanks!

 

[blup]

If the bricks are toothed in it potentially affects the party wall structurally. Do you have pics of the retained part of the chimney breast? Does it extend into the roof space?

 

[albiedill]

Hi thanks for your reply. No the chimney breast does not extend into the roof space.

Photo 1 - chimney breast before I attacked it
Photo 2 - removing some plaster revealed bricks going only as high as lath on ceiling
Photo 3 - after removing (loose!) bricks at the top revealing visible plasterboard

 

[ree]

OP,
Run an angle grinder down the abutment of party wall & toothed bricks then tap them to easily snap off flush with the wall.
If you had asked for advice before "attacking" the chimney breast you could have been saved extra work.
If you can see through a gap in the party wall then that gap is a fire risk. Have it bricked up.
Dont involve BCO, there's nothing left for him to see but it might then become a PWA issue - an issue which now isn't needed - so be cautious about involving the neighbour.

The RSJ appears to be doing nothing, and someone's attempt at trimming the joists is - well, a mess.