Removing 2/3 out of 4 Chimneys

[ghost3h]

Hi,

I'm buying a house that has a real fire in the living room, which I want to keep. However it was a 1930's house so each of the rooms had its own fireplace. Below is a rough imagine of how its designed. I want to remove 1& 2 for definite, and maybe 4 if its feasible.

Rooms 2 & 3 have alcoves either side of the fireplaces, but the bed rooms 1 & 4 only have alcoves to the left of 1 and right of 4, then are joined in the middle (taking up a lot of bedroom space).

My questions are:

1. Can I easily remove 1, 2, 4 whilst leaving 3 intact? Or easier to leave 4 and just remove 1 & 2?
2. Do they likely follow the design below, by converging to the centre in the loft? Or is it possible they converge to the centre on the 2nd floor of the house?
3. Would I be able to do the bulk of the work myself, and then get a builder to fit gallow brackets/RSJ as needed? (if so how?)

Any advice at all would be much appreciated, complete noobie when it comes to this.

Thanks
Kyle

 

[Blagard]

While removing 1 and 2 may be possible, if this is all on a Party Wall of a semi you need to get clued up on the Party Wall act. The division between yours and your neighbours flues may be just 4" so potential issues there may arise.

Leave 3 and 4 alone. The flues usually start central and offset to one side or the other, knocking out part of 4 may be possible but to what end? You still need to retain a good portion of the breast for 4.

Look in the loft, I would expect them to be arranged generally as you have sketched but they could converge earlier and the breast layout in the loft will give a good indication. I suspect earlier but have never seen one that way. If this is all on a Party Wall of a semi you need to get clued up on the Party Wall act. With 1 and 2 removed you should be able to support the upper part of the breast from within the loft.

While you can do the work yourself I would recommend getting an engineer in to inspect and to "draw up" what you should do for building control - A sketch should suffice

 

[ghost3h]

Thanks for the reply, I know next door has had theirs taken out on both sides on both floors. Not sure if this makes things easier, or complicates it further?

 

[Blagard]

I don't see it being a problem other than you still run the risk of some damage to the party wall and maybe some plaster disturbed on your neighbours side. Still best to get an engineer to detail the solution for buidling control.

With just one flue being retained of the eight in the shared stack you might want to consider discussing with your neighbour the removal of the stack above roof level and just rebuilding for the remaining flue. That really depends on the condition of the stack, so if it is poor consider it.

 

[Doggit]

If You're neighbours have taken their chimney breasts out, then it could be worth having a chat with them, and seeing what they did. Have they attached their gallows brackets to the party wall, and how thick is it. If you were to take out you're chimney stack in the loft, would that unbalance the stresses either side if the party wall. Are the chimney breasts tied in to the part wall, or just cemented to it, as that could determine how you have to get 3 and 4 supported.