Ground floor chimney breast been removed without proper support -help!!!

[Izziebelly]

Lying in bed the other morning, looking at the chimney breast directly in front of my bed, and a worrying thought occurred to me -there is no chimney breast in the room below this one! I am embraced to say that I have lived in my house for 2 years without noticing this! We have accepted an offer on our house and they are due to have their survey done any time now, needless to say this discovery has sent me into a bit of a panic. I don't see any obvious structural support in the ceiling of the room below so I am thinking probably this hasn't been supported properly.

The chimney breast is very shallow and having looked in the loft space above I can see that the chimney breast has been removed here and the stack from the roof removed. So in actual fact I guess the bit of chimney breast standing unsupported weighs less that my large bedroom wardrobes and therefore isn't very likely to cause an issue, a surveyor isn't going to see it like that though are they? Do you think this is a big problem, and if so would it be enough to just remove the chimney breast from the bedroom (given there is nothing to support above this)? Or would I need expensive beams, structural surveyors etc?

if you know a good local builder, get him to have a look. He may be able to see by taking up some floorboards.

the chimney breast ought to have been supported on gallows brackets underneath and a steel, but it is difficult to do that invisibly.

It's more often chimneystacks that fall down if unsupported, your chimneybreast will probably be held up by the party wall, but you ought to check, and loose bricks might fall out. You might be able to search your council's website to see if there were any applications made in the past. If you phone them they may want your address and possibly a nose round. This will also prevent anyone being able to insure against being found out.

Potential buyers are likely to ask, so if you can find a record of building regulations approval it will save you the expense of paying for insurance.

When you bought it your solicitor should have asked the vendors.

Thanks for responding PigletJohn - I was hoping you might see this as you always give such knowledgeable advice! The chimney breast is on an outside wall (semi detached) so I guess, unfortunately, that means there is less holding it up than if it was a party wall. As I said though it is a very shallow chimney breast (about 4 inches in depth) not sure that would even be deep enough for a fire and I'm also not sure where the chimney breast below would have ever fitted as it would have been right next to the front door, very odd!

The room in question was inaccessible when we purchased due to being sound proofed, so I suppose this is why it wasn't picked up by surveyor and solicitor. Feel so stupid when I think back to just how little we checked out before buying, definitely wont be making these mistakes second time around.

how old is the house? modern homes can has gas-flue blocks which are very small but restrict the sort of fire that can be fitted. Is there any sign that there used to be a fireplace in the upstairs room? Run your fingertips over the plaster upstairs and down, and tap it with your knuckles, to see if you can work out what might have been done. If you are on good terms with your neighbours have a look at their walls, semis are usually identical but mirrored design.

If it only projects by 4 inches it could be possible to use quite a small steel support. I don't think I've seen such a small chimneybreast.

Probably a stupid question, but if there's no chimney breast downstairs, none in the loft and it's in an odd place - are you sure there ever was a chimney? It's just that we've got a "chimney breast" in the sitting room and it's 100% fake and for effect only!