Has anyone put a range cooker in the chimney breast?

[Somuddled]

We want to do this in our new kitchen but cannot work out if we need to notify building control and if it would need sign off. (We know we wont need planning permission and we are in England) The lintel is fairly high but not quite high enough so it will need to be brought up. The only thing I can find on the internet Is about requirements for full removal not just opening up the space more.

If anyone has done this, please let me know.

Our cooker is in the chimney breast but no structural alterations were needed.

I hate it as in our layout there is no proper work top right next to the oven / hob. Things can’t be lifted out of the oven in to an adjacent surface. Balancing the bowl on a small surface next to the hub for pancakes is irritating. Etc.

Yea I did this in 2019. Didn't have any building control or anything, builder just knocked it out. (Day before Xmas eve 😂)

We can't put it anywhere else so I'll have to make my peace with not having space round it.

Larry did it take long?

@Somuddled

Larry did it take long?

The builder knocked the chimney out in a day I think, the kitchen fitter is another story 😬

I did this. Involved taking some of the chimney breast out to give enough height and we did need building regs signing off which our kitchen team sorted out.

Put it this way: any building regs requirement for something like this is purely about ensuring that the changes you have made haven't removed vital structural support that might mean that your house no longer has structural stability. Chimneys are remarkably heavy and exactly how much of a potential issue this is depends on your specific house so looking at what other people have done in other houses is not going to help. Unless you are planning to get the work done then sell up quick, you would surely want a professional calculation as to whether the remaining structure will be strong enough to support the weight of whatever load is still above it - otherwise you risk a collapse of whatever is insufficiently supported falling down into you kitchen and onto your nice new range cooker sooner or later. This must be done on a case-by-case basis and anyone sufficiently qualified to make that calculation is also qualified to sign off for building regs if needed and will know exactly what is needed. I wouldn't accept the word of a builder saying "yeah it will be fine" to make such a change in a house I intended to live in.

I did it about 20years ago. Best decision ever! Just got the builder to cut back the bricks and he put in a concrete lintel. Only issue was the occasional bit of dust coming down the chimney but I didn’t have an extractor hood and you maybe could?

My mum has this too and has enough space for a bit of work surface each side - massive chimney. No planning permission required and no one asked when I recently sold the house.

@KihoBebiluPute

Put it this way: any building regs requirement for something like this is purely about ensuring that the changes you have made haven't removed vital structural support that might mean that your house no longer has structural stability. Chimneys are remarkably heavy and exactly how much of a potential issue this is depends on your specific house so looking at what other people have done in other houses is not going to help. Unless you are planning to get the work done then sell up quick, you would surely want a professional calculation as to whether the remaining structure will be strong enough to support the weight of whatever load is still above it - otherwise you risk a collapse of whatever is insufficiently supported falling down into you kitchen and onto your nice new range cooker sooner or later. This must be done on a case-by-case basis and anyone sufficiently qualified to make that calculation is also qualified to sign off for building regs if needed and will know exactly what is needed. I wouldn't accept the word of a builder saying "yeah it will be fine" to make such a change in a house I intended to live in.

You haven't understood my post at all. Getting a structural engineer to do the assessment of the old lintel or calculations for a new one can, and will, be done regardless of building controls because yes, of course I want the work to be done properly. What I was trying to work out is if LA notice and sign off is a requirement or not. I didn't want to go through the bother of contacting them until I did a bit of research because they are really hard to get hold of in my area. I was asking people here to help work out the answer, which it did.

@Cdl84

I did this. Involved taking some of the chimney breast out to give enough height and we did need building regs signing off which our kitchen team sorted out.

Thank you. It's possible the hight is already ok for us but we won't know until we start doing some investigations. Next door neighbour who is a wee bit bonkers keeps saying they are surprisingly high.

Hi Larry, when your builder put your cooker in the chimney, how did you duct your cooker hood? We've opened ours and with the smoke stack etc we're a bit puzzled how to get the ducting through...