Knocking out chimney

[dinkydino123]

Hi! We bought a house a few months ago which has the chimney blocked up and replastered. They've done a nice job but we've always dreamt of a house with a fireplace and are thinking about trying to get it back. Has anyone on here done similar? What sort of tradesperson would we need to get in?

We just had 9 chimneys opened! A HETAS registered fireplace installer is probably your first place of call. It was a very dirty job - we did it as part of gutting the house. I couldn't imagine carpets/soft furnishings/upholstery surviving it, so I would only contemplate it as part of a renovation project.

Depending on the hight of your house, you'll probably also need external scaffolding, so that they can get to the top of the chimney. In our case, we found some original fire insets behind plasterboard, which was an easy win. In other cases, everything was bricked up with cement mortar, and opening it up was messy. Then the inside of the fireplace needed repointing/replastering, and the chimney neded lining from the inside, and chi.ney pots installed on top of the chimney. The annoying thing is that you don't know what to find until you open it. In our case, the rubble that the builders threw down the chimney when the rebuilt the roof decades before we bought the place. So when the nice plaster comes off, the old ash/rubble/dead mice/bird nests come rushing down into your living room. The chimney guy will have his hoover, but he will be wearing a Darth Vader style oxygen mask while he works to survive the dust. Did I mention it's messy 😀But definitely worth it 😀