Hi, in my house (1900 brick terrace with attic room) the previous owner had removed the chimney breast from the rear of the property. It has been removed from the ground floor, 1st floor, half the loft space and above the roof. In the loft about half height has been kept because it looks like the roof perlin sits on it as its not long enough to reach the party wall with a decent bearing, it has the original corbelled structure of the breast still in place, basically sticking out from the party wall.
Now, I have 2 questions
1) Given there is about 2 foot of chimney left with roof perlin on it, is the original corbelling brickwork sufficient? I appreciate its difficult to say without looking or being an SE. There are no signs of any problems at this level
2) Whilst removing some plaster in the kitchen, I've come across the area where the breast was removed and need some advice. There are no bricks bridging the wall either side of where the breast was, effectively the wall to the left of where the breast was isn't tied to that which was the back of the chimney. There are some small cracks in the plaster throughout the ground and 1st floor along this line. Looking at the brick work the courses either side are level in some places but not others so it doesn't look like this is a good indicator of movement. Given that areas where the breast was removed have been repointed with plaster and not mortar, is it sufficient to assume that this could simply be the cause of the cracking due to some shrinkage? (we're talking 6-8cm of plaster in some places) Is it worth me removing a couple of the half bricks either side of the line and adding some full bricks to tie the sides together where possible, and remove plaster and repoint with mortar
Thanks
Now, I have 2 questions
1) Given there is about 2 foot of chimney left with roof perlin on it, is the original corbelling brickwork sufficient? I appreciate its difficult to say without looking or being an SE. There are no signs of any problems at this level
2) Whilst removing some plaster in the kitchen, I've come across the area where the breast was removed and need some advice. There are no bricks bridging the wall either side of where the breast was, effectively the wall to the left of where the breast was isn't tied to that which was the back of the chimney. There are some small cracks in the plaster throughout the ground and 1st floor along this line. Looking at the brick work the courses either side are level in some places but not others so it doesn't look like this is a good indicator of movement. Given that areas where the breast was removed have been repointed with plaster and not mortar, is it sufficient to assume that this could simply be the cause of the cracking due to some shrinkage? (we're talking 6-8cm of plaster in some places) Is it worth me removing a couple of the half bricks either side of the line and adding some full bricks to tie the sides together where possible, and remove plaster and repoint with mortar
Thanks
