Chimney Breast Removal, can you just do ground floor?

Hi Folks,

Apologies, i have been making a few different threads here lately, but this should be my last for the while.

I'm looking to see if anyone knows anything about chimney breast removal, or has perhaps had it done?

For context, my house is an end terrace 3 bed, and the breast is slap bang in the middle of my house (ie; i don't share it with a neighbour, it's not a party wall, etc.). One side of the breast is my kitchen, the other is the sitting room.


The gist of it is that I'm extending the kitchen to the rear of the house, and putting a new kitchen in. I have a builder on the job, but the builder has never removed a breast before and is hesitant to do anything but remove the entire thing from the top down (which is something i'd like to do, but will add expense and will leave the entire house in a mess in the weeks before christmas, so it's not ideal).


But I can't seem to get any decent workaround it in the kitchen design/layout. So I'm curious to see is it possible to just remove it from the kitchen on the ground floor. I understand I can stick a steel beam in there and that can support the weight, but then the steel beam needs to be supported, which brings me back to square one.


This is the kitchen/breast:






These 2 pics are taller, so i've just linked to them:

https://s7.postimg.org/ucg9irw0b/20171210_152439.jpg

https://s7.postimg.org/inc9utkh7/20171210_152447.jpg



I did this little video, too..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEVL_uNBFDI&feature=youtu.be



Now, I'm not very clued into construction or such, but would anyone have any idea what's going on here? My understanding of a chimney breast like this is that it's supporting the upstairs breast, and up through the roof to the actual chimney itself (which protrudes over the roof).

But in the video, you can see that the bricks end at the floorboards? So there obviously is something supporting the upper storeys, but it looks like the 'face' of the breast is just cosmetic (and an rsj could support the floor above?).

Presumably somewhere in the centre of the breast there is a flue that is encased and that is going the whole way up?


I can't seem to find anything online that would show a diagram of how this would be built, but i can find videos of them being taken out easily enough (and with no supports holding the ceiling?).

Like this one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIZ_ltL0B-w



I'm feeling very much like this is a really do-able job, but i'm hitting a brick wall (no pun intended) in actually moving forward to getting it done.

Anyone done it or able to offer any advice? Builder is back in the morning and in a perfect world i'd like to be actually able to start on this tomorrow.


Am i delusional or misunderstanding something obvious here?

the_pen_turner

its definitely do able. but I think it would cost 10 times more than just taking it all out. you would need some serious rsjs and engineering to do it. one wrong move and its a disaster .

I would wait until after Christmas and do it then.

Gumbo

Yes. Subject to the engineers details. Steel beam and support for that steel beam required.
Joists around May need to be altered and fixed.

Cheers for the replies folks.

So how about this as an alternative, is this an easy peasy lemon squeezy job? Googling Kitchen Chimney Breast brings up no shortage of kitchens with this done:




(I presume what's happening here is that the front of the chimney is removed, and the very top is supported with steel, and the reason the sides are still there is to support the steel beam itself?)

the_pen_turner

much easier to do that and cheaper

Gumbo

I done that in a house in Finglas. They done a flip on the kitchen from rear to front but I left the breast in place.

Get the chimney sweeper, cleaned and then a vertical glue liner for the extract hood vent.

kceire

kceire wrote: »

I done that in a house in Finglas. They done a flip on the kitchen from rear to front but I left the breast in place.

Get the chimney sweeper, cleaned and then a vertical glue liner for the extract hood vent.

To be honest, I'd be happy enough to just block it up (the flue) and use an extractor with filters on it. Rarely is an extractor fan used in our house to be honest.

It's more just the space i want. Even if i just ran counter space into it, it'd be handy. I hate the feckin' chimney breast.

Must get an actual price on entire removal.