Removing chimney

[sammyjammy]

I have a chimney on my Victorian terraced house which goes down through the attic, back bedroom and down to the kitchen (obviously!!!) anyway, there are no fires in place and i would like to remove the chimney to make the space in the rooms bigger and more practical. Would it make more sense to remove the whole thing because i guess If I just take it out of the kitchen it will need some kind of RSJ? Is it a huge expensive job to remove the whole thing? What kind of price would i be looking at? Would it be a problem for the floors/ceilings?

Thanks for any help.

Sammy

 

[masona]

Before you do anything, you will need see a structure surveyor who will advise you what to do.

 

[sammyjammy]

Before you do anything, you will need see a structure surveyor who will advise you what to do.

Just reread my post, sorry I shouldn't have asked about cost, I didn't mean it to sound as if I was going to do it myself..... god forbid, but are you saying you wouldn't rely on a builder to tell me what was ok and what wasn't or is it a requirement to get a structural surveyor in for this sort of thing in case the house falls down? gulp

 

[masona]

Yes, I wouldn't rely on any builders because if you're doing internal structural alterations or removal of chimney breasts will require Building Regulations approval anyway. Best to give your local planning a ring and see what they say. I've seen many chimney breasts removal and badly damaged property because some builders know it all !!!!

 

[oilman]

I had a customer (who has now changed to gas) and was getting the chimney removed, so I asked what he was going to do with the boiler flue (as it went up the chimney). "The builder never mentioned that".

Alway a bad move in my opinion to remove chimneys. I get lots of calls from people with broken down central heating, the ones with chimneys just need to light a fire, those without get cold (and sometimes the heating is off because there's no electricity, so electric heaters won't help).