Chimney breast removal

[peachy94]

OH and I have seen a semi detached house that we like and may make an offer on (dependent on selling ours) it has chimneys in the front and back rooms and up in the bedrooms, we would want to knock the back room and kitchen through and make a big kitchen so I would like the breast taking out OH seems to think we would have to take them out the whole way round the house but surely we could just take out the one in the back room and block it up? I would like to take them out of the bedrooms too but imagine it would start getting v expensive. Can I take just the back room chimney out? How much am I looking at? Thanks :) xx

You can just take out the back room but you'd need structural calcs and building control sign-off - check what your local council require in terms of support as it varies (used to be gallows bracket but now some specific steels). Your making good costs will add up (flooring, decoration, dirt). Depends on your area but probably around 2K per breast.

Chimney breast is structural, so yes, some form of alternative support is needed. Also if it attaches your neighbour a party wall agreement.

It's a horrendous job. Dirt everywhere

It's not just knocking out the chimney breast in one room; you'd need to support the weight of the chimney stack above. Chimneys also provide ventilation; blocking it up could cause damp. You'd need to get an opinion from someone who knows what they're doing.

Better to take out from the top down if you can, but supporting is not hard just needs calculating.
In our case even though it was all removed one of the chimneys was providing lateral stability to a wall built on the floor boards that was supporting the roof so it need a load of vertical steel bars installed at short notice. But even the se didn't spot that issue.