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Removing a chimney

Started by lowpolyjoe, June 16, 2015, 03:12:02 PM

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lowpolyjoe

Hey Everybody

Wasn't sure where to put this thread - hope it fits in here.

Wife and I are hoping to remodel our kitchen.  We live in a high-ranch / split-level home - i think it was built in the 60s.  It has a chimney going up from the utility room on the ground floor, through the corner of the kitchen on the second floor, through the attic and out the roof (obviously  :D).    A while back we replaced our boiler with a super high efficiency model that uses a PVC pipe to exhaust its waste gasses out through the side of the house.  To my knowledge there is no use for the chimney anymore. 

We were hoping to have the chimney removed because that would give us an extra few square feet of counter top and cabinet space in that corner of the kitchen, something we need badly.

We are planning to have some roofers come to get some quotes.  My main concern is that the roof must be repaired properly after removal.  Are there any other issues to worry about?  My wife read somewhere that older houses may have load bearing members tied directly to the chimney, but I have not even tried to check (nor do I know how I would check).    Is there any reason to leave the chimney in place if it's not being used for anything?



Thanks a lot,
Joe


gspren

   About 20 years ago, when I had more energy, I took a brick chimney out of a much older house. The chimney went up through 2 stories plus a tall attic, started at the top and took it brick by brick stopping to patch the roof and then carrying buckets of bricks to a window where I had a slide like they use for concrete. As I got to each floor it was easy to see that it wasn't supporting anything. LOTS of dust and dirt but worth it in the end.
Stihl 041, 044 & 261, Kubota 400 RTV, Kubota BX 2670, Ferris Zero turn

Bruno of NH

A house built in the 60's should have a free standing chimney .
Real old houses might have a beam pocket built in a big cooking fireplace .
Jim/Bruno
Lt 40 wide with 38hp gas and command controls , F350 4x4 dump and lot of contracting tools

lowpolyjoe

Thanks for the feedback guys.

We had one contractor in to give an estimate.  2 more coming the next week or so.    Not gonna be cheap but it will open up a good amount of extra counter space for us.

BradMarks

I guess I got lucky, removing our chimney only involved that above the roof, sheeting the opening and shingleing. The rest of the chimney had been covered by walls in a long ago re-model or was sub-floor and there was no reason to remove it. The house was built in the 40's.

DR_Buck

We're going to be removing 3 old chimneys form our new "old" house.  One of them was for the old cook kitchen and is leaning pretty bad.   The other 2 go up thru the center of the house at different locations.  One of then has fireplaces on 1st and 2nd floors and is in the section of the house built in 1875.  The other one is in the addition added in the early 1900's and what ever is was for has been plastered over.  I need to remove the interior plaster to see if there was a fireplace or just flu connections for wood burners on each floor.

This is going to be one of our 1st projects when we start remodeling "this old house".  ;D
Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

lowpolyjoe


BradMarks -it sounds so easy when you put it that way.. but my home improvement skills are poor.  I recently removed an in-wall air conditioner and tried to patch up the hole.   Turned into a big mess that i'll probably have to pay someone to repair at some point.  Home repairs are just not my thing  :(

Wish our chimney was for a fireplace (or 3 :) )....  I miss having a fireplace from my youth.   I wouldn't mind giving up some real-estate for a fireplace, but ours was just for the boiler and is totally unused now that we updated to one that uses the PVC exhaust piping. 

Good luck with the project DR_Buck.


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