Hi,
We live in a Victorian terrace with chimney breasts in the two downstairs reception rooms and one of the upstairs bedrooms (ie. the chimney breast for the front of the house has been knocked out it the room above). Surveyor says chimney has been tied in properly where it's been removed. The fireplace in the front room is bricked up, is just a blank mass of bricks taking up lots of room in a small living room.
The fireplace at the back of the house could potentially be a working fireplace if we lined it but as we have two tiny children and good central heating and live in a smoke ban area we are unlikely to bother. The bedroom above it is a small double but currently impossible to really have a double bed and much other furniture in due to the fireplace would become a much more comfortable double with much easier to layout if a perfect square without the fireplace.
So we are thinking about taking out the useless fireplace in front room (with no chimney above). Any ideas how much this might cost to make good too? Do we need party wall agreements etc? can the bricks be reclaimed/sold?
Also I'm wondering about whether to completely remove the chimney breast in the opposite bedroom thus rendering the fireplace in the room below useless but a nice feature (that one does have a fireplace in it albeit not traditional and maybe we could get a gas fire or something in it?- venting?) or I think there is a way of reducing the size of a chimney breast and having it as a much narrower flue so the fireplace below could potentially still be a working fireplace slough we are very unlikely to use it as such. Any idea about the costs involved for either of those options? (that one would involve sorting the structural work of the chimney pots on the roof too to make them safe however we may tie all this work in with a loft conversion in which case that may come under that)
Any advice? Thanks for getting with me and hope you followed our complicated chimney dilemma!
Cheers
ladyC