Take out the breast.
Keep the stack
where it is.
Removing a chimney breast gains a wall of floor space in a Victorian room, and done properly it is a routine structural job. Done badly it leaves tonnes of brick stack above hanging on nothing, which is exactly the line that shows up in surveys years later. We do the engineering, the approval and the work.
More floor space,
better layouts.
In a Victorian or Edwardian house the chimney breast often takes up the best wall in the room. Taking it out can make space for a kitchen run, fitted wardrobes, a wider bathroom or simply a room that furnishes properly. In a back-to-back terrace layout, removing the breasts on one floor can change how the whole floor plan works.
It is not always the right answer. If the stack is shared with a neighbour, if the breast sits under a heavy stack on a weak wall, or if you would lose a period fireplace you want to keep, we will tell you before anything is designed.
Ground floor, upper floor
or the whole chimney.
Ground floor only
The most common request. Everything above stays, so the breast on the first floor and the stack must be supported, usually on a steel beam or gallows brackets designed by the engineer.
Upper floor only
Removing a bedroom breast while keeping the one below needs support for the stack above, and often less structural work than a ground floor removal.
All floors and the stack
Taking the breasts out on every floor and the stack down below the roof removes the load entirely. It involves roof work, retiling and weathering the party wall, and is often the tidiest long-term outcome.
Shared and back-to-back chimneys
Where your breast shares a stack with your neighbour's, their flues and the party wall have to be protected and the design has to account for their side as well.
The stack above
is the whole problem.
A chimney breast is not decorative. The brickwork inside the room carries the stack that continues up through the floors above and out through the roof. Remove the breast on the ground floor and the breast on the floor above, and the stack in the loft, now have nothing under them. On a shared chimney between two terraced houses, half of that stack is your neighbour's.
So removal is a structural job. A structural engineer looks at what is above, what the walls either side can carry, and specifies either gallows brackets fixed into the party wall or a steel beam across the opening bearing onto padstones. In most London terraces a beam is the sounder answer and gallows brackets are limited to cases where the wall can take them and the neighbour agrees. The engineer's drawing is what Building Control signs off against.
Building Control,
and the Party Wall Act.
Chimney breast removal is building work under the Building Regulations and needs either a building notice or a full plans application, with Building Control inspecting the support before it is covered up and issuing a completion certificate at the end. That certificate is what a buyer's solicitor asks for. Without it, the next survey will say support not evident and the sale stalls or the price drops.
If the chimney is on a party wall, which it is in almost every terrace and semi, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies. Your neighbour has to be served notice and can consent or appoint a surveyor. The work also has to leave their side of the stack supported, which is one reason the engineer's design matters. We handle the Building Control application and tell you what the Party Wall position is before anything starts.
The stack above the roof can stay, be reduced or come down entirely. Removing it to below the roofline and tiling over is often the tidiest outcome and takes away a chimney repair job for the future, but it is a separate decision from the breast.
Already removed,
by someone else.
Many London houses had breasts removed decades ago with no engineer, no approval and no record. The survey line is usually chimney breast removed, method of support not evident, further investigation recommended, and a lender may hold back on it. The fix is to open up and look. If there are gallows brackets or a beam, an engineer can assess and certify them. If there is nothing, support goes in now and Building Control signs it off as a regularisation.
Either way the result is a certificate that answers the survey, and the work is usually a day or two plus the making good. We do the opening up, the engineering, the support, the plaster and the decoration so there is one firm and one bill.
The checks that
come first.
Gas fires and flues
Any gas fire or appliance connected to the chimney must be disconnected and capped by a Gas Safe registered engineer before the breast is opened up.
Electrics
Sockets and cables in or near the breast are isolated and rerouted by a registered electrician.
Older materials
Old fire surrounds, flue linings and boards can contain materials that need testing before they are disturbed. Where something suspect is found, it is sampled before work continues. See our asbestos surveys page.
Approvals and notices
Building Control is notified with the engineer's design and party wall notices are served on the neighbour, so the work can start legally and be signed off.
How a removal
is carried out.
1. Survey and design
We look at the breast, the floors above and the stack, and a structural engineer designs the support.
2. Quote and approvals
You receive a written fixed quote. Building Control and party wall notices are dealt with before the start date.
3. Protection and propping
Rooms are sheeted and sealed against dust, and temporary props are installed where the design needs them.
4. Removal and support
The brickwork comes out by hand, the steel or brackets go in exactly as designed, and Building Control inspects the support.
5. Making good
Floor infill, ceiling repairs, plastering and new skirting leave the room ready to decorate, and the completion certificate is issued.
Paperwork that
matters at sale.
A buyer's solicitor will ask for the Building Control completion certificate. If a previous owner removed a breast without approval, the options are opening up the ceiling to check the support, putting in proper support where it is missing, and applying to Building Control for regularisation. Our survey repairs and survey repair quotes pages explain how we turn a survey finding into a written price.
What decides
the cost.
The number of floors involved, whether the stack stays or comes down, the support the engineer specifies, access to the roof, the condition of the party wall, and how much making good and redecoration you want included. We quote every removal in writing after a survey, with fees for the engineer, Building Control and party wall surveyors listed separately so you can see them. For steel beams elsewhere in the house, see lintels and steel beams.
When removal is
not the best option.
Opening up the fireplace instead
If you want the room to work better but like the period character, opening up and lining a blocked fireplace can make the breast a feature rather than an obstacle.
Removing part of the breast
Sometimes cutting back one side, or removing the breast only at low level for a kitchen run, gives most of the benefit with less structural work. The engineer will say what is possible.
Built-in storage around it
Alcove units either side of a breast can add more usable storage than the floor space you would gain by removing it, with no structural work at all.
How long the
job takes.
Removing a single ground floor breast and fitting the support is usually a few days on site, plus drying time before decoration. Removing breasts on several floors with the stack, or working on a party wall where the neighbour's surveyor needs to inspect, takes longer. Design, Building Control approval and party wall notices need to be allowed for before the start date, so it pays to plan early if the removal is part of a wider refurbishment or kitchen extension.
Questions we get
asked most.
Get a written
price.
Monday to Saturday 9am to 8pm, Sunday 9am to 3pm. All London boroughs.
Message us on WhatsAppSend the survey page or a photo and we will tell you what it means and what it will take to fix.
Often needed
alongside this.
Areas we cover.
We take chimney breast removal and structural work across all 32 London boroughs. Most of our work is in west London, in Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, Fulham, Kensington, Chiswick and White City, and in south west London, in Putney, Wandsworth and Wimbledon. We also work in south east London, in Greenwich, Blackheath and Lewisham.
If your property is outside these areas, call us anyway. We travel across London and will tell you honestly if a job is too far to price properly.