Reduce or remove chimney stack?

[jackstini]

We have a chimney stack shared between a house we own and the neighbour. The top of it is unsafe and needs coming down by about 8 courses

Have been given 2 options:
One to reduce and cap over so would still be above roof level
One to take below the roof and replace tiles over

Has anyone had this done and what are the pros and cons?

No working fires in either house, Victorian terrace, costs to be shared 50/50

Rebuild to original height because no one could ever have a fire again if you reduce it. Spoils the look of houses when they are altered like this. Why not just make it safe but usable?

If your going to take it down , take it below the roof level and just tile over, it’s not a big job and relatively straight forward for a builder . The good thing about it is it does away with all the flashing around the stack and reduces the risk of future leaks . Just leave in uncapped in the roof space to ventilate it .

If someone wants to rebuild it at a later date it wouldn’t be too much trouble to open up the roof and rebuild it up .

We had our shared one reduced and capped, our other completely removed and tiled over. We are not arsed about gas fires and no intention of selling so why should we consider a person who may live here in the future.

Mixed opinions then!

We plan to sell it in about 5-10 years, so don't want to damage the future value, but want it to be safe and warm for tenant for now

Having electric fires instead of gas won't damage future value. If the chimney breasts are staying and you remove stack to just below roof line, it can be rebuilt easily.

If the chimney breasts are staying and you remove stack to just below roof line, it can be rebuilt easily.
On your own roof, yes, but this will have to involve a neighbour agreeing. There is probably more leeway in leaving it up.
Having said that, are fires needing chimneys or flues going to be a thing of the past if bioethanol fires catch on?

We had a leaning chimney stack removed to below the roof line and roof re-tiled several years back. This particular chimney stack had no open fires (we have three other working chimneys). It wasn't a particularly hard or expensive job - maybe £900 - can't remember as about 5 years back. We had it removed due to the lean and also ingress of water so I'd definitely say below the roofline to prevent further water issues.

What do your neighbours want to do?

Neighbours don't really mind - have got a call with him later to decide!

Difference in price is £450
Standard lowering £1000
Below roof incl new laths/felt/tiles is £1450
Both include scaffolding at approximately £300

I don’t see any advantage to spending an extra £450 to take it below the roof.

Scaffolding sounds quite cheap? Not that I’m an expert.

I’d leave the chimney. We have just had the top 5 courses and chimney pots replaced on our shared Victorian chimney. But we use our fire place.