Chimney breast removal advice.

[divingmoose]

Hi people i am just after some advice.

We have a 2 storey victorian town house which has a chimney breast both in the middle of the front room and then the bedroom above then into the 2nd floor bedroom. The same is in the back room of the house then running into the back bedroom above and then into the 2nd floor again were i think both chimney breasts must merge into one and then out of the roof. I assume they must merge as there is just the one stack on the roof. I am contempleting removing the breast in the back room and the bedroom above as we dont use any of the fire places and they will give us more room if they are removed. I am looking at getting a builder in but just wondered what happens really.
Will they support the chimney in the back bedroom above the ceiling line, this wont be a problem as i will be pulling the old lat and plaster ceiling in that room down.
Also with the chimneys merging into one on the top floor i assume as long as the builder supports the stack that we have removed this wont effect the chimneys in the front rooms.
Our house when built was the end terrace and then some years after a house was built attached to ours but i assume this wont effect the neigbours house?
Thanks for any help.

 

[RonnyRaygun]

Do you mean you've got two bedrooms on the second floor and an attic above, making it a three storey town house?

The chimney breasts will corbel over towards each other meeting in the middle and going through the roof in a single stack.

It's usually possible to put a beam above the ceiling in the attic straight onto the spine wall (providing the spine wall is masonry). If it's stud at second floor level then you may need to put a post down to second floor to carry the steel beam.

If you have a raised collar roof it's more dificult to hide the beam above the loft floor as it would need to be cranked down to bear onto the external wall.
Then it might be easier and cheaper to box the beam in beneath the ceiling.

The other issue is that if you have a house attached then the wall is a party wall, regardless of when the adjoining property was built. So you will also need to get a party wall agreement with your neighbours.

 

[divingmoose]

Yes it's a 3 storey, I want to remove it from the back room on the ground floor and then directly above in the backbedroom on the 1st floor and leave it in situ on the 2nd floor were it merges with the chimney from the rooms at the front of the house and out the roof. So I assume what your saying is that were I remove it from the bedroom on the first floor, the builder would support the remaining part of the chimney by putting supports under it. I assume then I can then put new plasterboard ceiling up in the bedroom and the supports would be hidden in the ceiling.