opening up a chimney breast

Hi,

I live in a converted georgian house, with a neighbour above me. The side of the house has two chimney breasts, one in the living room and one in the kitchen, running up an external wall. The external wall is flat on the outside - no sign of the chimney at all. Obviously the chminey breasts run up into my neighbour's flat above.

I've been thinking about redoing the kitchen, and ideally I'd like to get rid of the chimney breast altogether and run a worktop and units all the way along the wall. Failing that, I'd like to knock the front off the chimney breast, so that only the sidewalls remained, and use the space inside for a cooker and units (it's quite wide and would make the kitchen quite a bit bigger).

Is this at all possible, or would it require some serious extra structural work to stabilise/run the risk of the house falling down? I don't want to spend too long thinking about it if it's practically impossible!

Thanks for any help!

Miles

Reply to
Miles
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Option A would be much easier I'm sure; I would envisage not removing the front all the way to the ceiling, and inserting a steel lintel to prop up the remainder of the front and all that's above it (upstairs) - that would also necessitate enough width of brick of the sidewalls for the steel to bear on at either end.

Option B could potentially involve major surgery, depending on construction, eg it's quite common for the first floor joists to be built into the chimmney breast. Not for the faint hearted.

But do you really want to do this to a Georgian property... :-(

David

Reply to
Lobster

I'd say that was impossible without access to the upstairs flat (and considerable work being done upstairs.

That's more likely to be possible, especially if you will accept a ceiling protrusion. In effect, all you'd be doing is raising the lintle across the existing fire opening. You might even be able to get an extractor fan duct up the flue.

However, building standards today aren't what they were in dear old Georgie's time, and you will have to satisfy the Building Control Officer that the side walls of the chimney breast are sufficient to support a lintle, which is possibly not only supporting the chimney breast above but also upstair's floor.

It certainly requires serious structural work, but this might not be

*major* especially for the second proposal. The work must be done in accordance with Building Regulations, to the approval of the BCO, and you might require a structural engineer to approve the drawings to satisfy the BCO.

You *might* also need agreement from the upstairs neighbour and the freeholder, under English law.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Apart from transposing A and B, we've said almost the same thing.

It's already, at some unspecified time in the past, been flatted. I 'ave 'orrible thoughts of 'ardboard and woodchip throughout.

However, retaining the existing breast but opening it up as an alcove would have the advantage of probably retaining the frieze and cornice if such were original.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Adding to Owain's advice, I'd like say that lintels will probably not be allowed in this situation, gallows* would have to be made to order, and bolted through the wall to outside, expect to pay £300 for the steelwork (just to buy, not to install)

  • gallows are steel angle iron, approx 100X100X10mm, welded into an L shape, with a support coming down diagonally from the long part to the short, the longest part is bolted through the wall and you'd need one under each outer wall of the breast and one for each midfeather...on top of these goes another 100X100mm angle iron holding up the face of the breast
Reply to
Phil L

I've done something similar to Option B very recently (although I do won the upstairs as well).

Given that it's likely to be possible, check the situation as to whether you can do it without consent of the freeholder. If yes move to consulting a structural engineer. If no try and find out if the freeholder is likely to be a problem, then proceed to structural engineer again.

I wouldn't start to worry about advice on lintels/gallows brackets etc. Unless you've got a degree in civil/structural engineering you want want to do your own calaculations. Even if you do have the relevant qualification (I do) you probably want to get a practicing struct E in as he'll carry better insurance than you will in case he gets it wrong. (To be fair I did check all my Struct E's work, and thankfully it was fine.)

Fash

Reply to
Fash

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