Chimney breast - trimming back Re-generate an old or tired space and give it a fresh breath of life. Click here for answers, information and tips

[spinkox]

I have a typical Victorian terrace where the bathroom is off the second bedroom. I plan to build a stud wall to gain access to the bathroom. Annoyingly there is a chimney breast and fireplace on the party wall where I plan to construct the corridor. This means the corridor has to be wider to allow for this - which of course means the bedroom will end up being smaller too. I would like to retain the fireplace that the chimney serves downstairs. The chimney projects 1.5 bricks with a 9 inch flue.

I was wondering if I could trim back to leave a 4 inch flue and rebuild the face with - say 3 inch blocks to gain a few extra inches. The reduction of the flue area from the downstairs fireplace could be counteracted by running it up the flue from upstairs as well. At the top I could put a lintel that cantilevers to give support to the chimney in the loft where it thickens out again.

Does this sound possible??

steve

[stoneyboy]

spinkox,
Does this sound possible?? No
Either make the downstairs fireplace a dummy one and remove the chimney breast in the bedroom or accept a wider corridor/narrower bedroom.
end

[rosebery]

What you propose is structurally very unsound.

Cheers

[spinkox]

Thanks - well I thought I might be asking the impossible - altho this must be a common problem and I thought someone might have come up with a clever idea.

steve

[rosebery]

Sorry not to have been able to be of more assistance. On and BTW if you are going to follow an earlier post in this thread and remove the breast in the bedroom you MUST remove it all the way through the roof including the chimney.

Failure to do so inevitably and eventually results in a pile of bricks descending into the house at great speed!

Cheers

[spinkox]

Unfortunately I still wish to retain the fireplace on the floor below. On the structural side - is there any reason why the brickwork couldnt be corbelled out to support the chimney above in the loft space?? We would only be talking about 5 inches or so. Im sure I've seen brickwork corbelled out far more than this . . .

steve

[stoneyboy]

spinkox,
You should get a structural engineer to have a look at supporting the upper part of the chimney. Feasablity will depend on how thick the wall is which backs the chimney.
I assume the chimney is on the party wall, the flue is unlikey to be less than 9" so adding the brick width corbelling will be at least 13.5 inches. Do not try this without a professional opinion.
end
roseberry - thanks amended as suggested

[rosebery]

"Do not try this with a professional opinion."


Presume you mean "without"?

Cheers

[spinkox]

OK - Thanks for taking the time to respond - much appreciated.