chimney removal semi detach house

[tina299]

hi everyone . i have a chimney in my house which needs to be removed fully from reception from bedroom and loft and top of roof . its is a semidetatch house with no neighbour interference . chimney is in the middle of the house . Council said you dont require any paperwork or structural calculation if you removing chimney fully and no party wall with neighbour. Today builder came in making me afraid sayinv that he will not start work without his own structural engineer dounb calcs. May be he want to make money . Do any one know that we need any support or beams or engineer for anything .

you want to remove a chimney breast and chimney without consulting a structural engineer? are you mad? of course you need a proper opinion. any builder who would work without one is dodgy as anything.

Of course you need someone to look at it properly!

Who did you speak to at the council? Building control won't sign it off without evidence of appropriate structural reinforcement. Your builder is correct.

We are removing a chimney - as we are removing it entirely we do not need support however we had a structural engineer write a report to confirm this. It is not that costly and will give you peace of mind.

Whoever told you that it you don’t need a structural engineer is talking shit. Building control will need to sign off on any work and you will never be able to sell the house if you don’t do things right.

Never mind signing it off - you could bring your house down and cause thousands of pounds of uninsured structural damage if you don’t ensure you have the appropriate support after you remove your chimney / children breast. Makes no difference if the chimney is adjoining your neighbours property or not.

Do NO work without getting in a structural engineer to inspect and do some calculations. When we removed a chimney we had to put in cross beams.

You need to get building control in before, during and after doing the work.

ya building control in council told us if you remove whole thing down then you dont need any structural calculation to show to them and no need of an application as well . i was just confused and for peace of mind i will still cal engineer and then builder can start work

ricstar you are right when there is no party walll with neighbours and house is end terrace and you are removing fully you dont need an application. we did apply and they said you dont require and then canceled our application . if you are keeping any part of chimney like in loft or in any room then you need calcs to support that chimney part .and then you need aplication as well .But stil i wil cal engineer and cary out calcs so to see for myself thag house is fully balanced.

It shouldn’t be expensive. I can’t remember what ours was now - £250 for calculations maybe. But you know what, in the grand scheme of a major building project and it being your house it’s peanuts. Your builder is right to be cautious and ensuring this has been considered.