Removed ground floor chimney breast

[TripleS]

Hello,

As the title suggests, I have just had the ground floor chimney breast removed in my 40 years old (approx) semi-detached house, with the chimney being on the party wall of the living room.

I know that we should have got Building Control and Structural Engineers involved in order to do it the best, safest and most efficient way. However, I was in the process of having an extension built and the builder suggested that he can remove my ground floor chimney breast as I planned on wanting that done sometime.

When he took it out, to support it, he put in two wooden beams (at least that's what I think they are, unless they were concrete lintels) to support the upper stack and chimney top itself, and then underneath these he put in two gallow brackets to support the two beams. The ceiling has now been repaired and plasterboards/skimming done.

The thing is, I'm not sure whether the option the builder chose is safe and was wondering what the likelihood of any problems is, bearing in mind that most of the people in our area have had chimney breasts removed before the building reg's act came in and have not experienced any problems and some of these have been around 18 years ago whilst some have been around 8 years ago. I'm thinking that if a steel RSJ was used, it would have put me in a more comfortable position so to speak.

What are your thoughts?

Steve

 

[Beckmeister General]

Just done this for ground floor and bedroom in a pre-war semi so I've done some studying on the internet. What he seems to have done is recomended although there are some stipleations about the wall thickness on party walls. Type gallows bracket into google and it shows you recomendations (in images theres a solution akin to your situation). The gallows bracket solution is to take the weight off the joists. Although in my last house the chimney breast was taken out in the dinning room but remaining in the bedroom above with no gallows bracket and that had been done for 25 years with no apparant damage. It was just supported by wooden battens nailed between the joists (Not good practise but it shows what weight can be carried).

 

[noseall]

there are certain situations whereupon, due to the way that the brickwork is tied-in, that the structure above the removed area will be perfectly safe.

an earthquake couldn't shift it.

problems arise in semi-detached locations where the chimneys are built back to back and the neighbours decide to remove their chimney breast too.

this is where an engineers's or a good builders's knowledge is vital.

 

[TripleS]

Hi Beckmeister General,

Thanks for your response. The solution that you say is what seems like the method used. What he has done is placed two wooden beams going perpenicular across the joists of the ceiling. Underneath two of the joists, he then put in these gallow brackets as you mentioned to support the load of bricks/stack above. He then went on to put padding etc around there I think.

Our neighbours are on pretty good terms with us (we've known them for the past 20 years )and I'm not sure they actually know that we should have got a party wall agreement but we let them know that we have had the chimney breast removed and they are pretty sound about it. I understand it might be a different story if they decide to move but dont think that will be happening for a while yet!

They have not had any chimny breasts on their side of the party walls removed and dont think they are planning on doing so either.

I just want to ensure that the option used by the builder is common and safe and not some random cowboy method deployed. Having said that, the builder is a decent builder and has finished our extension to a good, safe standard.

Steve

PS: I know I should have taken pictures when I had the chance to show you all but the ceiling has now been restored and skimmed

 

[TripleS]

Thanks for your response noseall, just saw it after I posted my second post.

But as you say, I did think that it could be a problem for the neighbours should they decide to get theirs removed (as they are back-toback) but I guess we can solve that together when the time arises as, like I mentioned previously, we know them quite well so should they decide to have any related work done, we would consult one another regarding this.