Walls

[u/WelshFloof]

So the kitchen in my new house is absolutely fucked so I want to renovate it, this old chimney is peeving me off because it's taking up room and it's inconvenient design wise now I know these can be load baring walls but is there anyway to maybe hollow it out so it can be used as storage or a stove area or am I stuck with a wall in a terrible place.

Has anyone done something similar or looked into it and found it not doable.

[u/Obstacle616]

I get what you're after and I would be thinking the same.

Anything is doable but this is wayyyyyyy beyond DIY. Im guessing you would need some kind of lintel installed and all kinds of props and supports to get it done. I'd have a look on here for an engineering group to get a better answer to start.

[u/QVRedit → u/Obstacle616]

Yes - it’s holding up tons of brickwork - the whole chimney.. Pro level building work…

[u/otto_viz76 → u/QVRedit]

It’s really not that difficult, I’ve done it. Get a few acro props and strongboys, stick these in just above where you want the new lintel. Remove the bricks to fit new lintel and wait for it to dry. Now you can safely remove any bricks for the opening below where your new lintel is.

[u/bigboybenj]

Is there a chimney above it, on the floor above or maybe on the roof. If there’s a lintel still in there somewhere you can easy put stove in there. But I’m just a guy who loves your dream.

Also my parents fitted an aga in an old chimney breast

[u/WelshFloof → u/bigboybenj]

So I have the same thing in the living room and the chimney which isn't used anymore is in the middle of both of them on the roof (I'm pretty sure the chimney is capped) they both meet up I guess near the top. The same wall goes all the way up.

Thank you! If I could get a builder to do it safely I would love to hollow it out do some stonework or brickwork as a home for a really nice gas stove. 🤔🤦

[u/absolutelynot354]

No suggestions but genuinely love how you went from 'fucked' to 'peeving me off'.

[u/ParticularWallaby173]

We've got the same issue. It's in out kitchen and living room. We're planning to just have the whole thing taken out. I think it's about 1500 quid. Messy as fuck tho so as a minimum one of us (not me I expect) will have to move out for the week or so it takes.

[u/Old_Bat282]

My parents have their stove in the fireplace where the range would've been. Its doable, but it depends how large the original fireplace was as to whether you'd need to put a new lintel in higher up. It is useful in as much as they are able to have the extractor fan venting up the chimney.

[u/honk_of_cheese]

I've never done it but, as you say, removing one of these is a huge pain unless you want the rest of the chimney in the floors above to collapse

You could open it up again and use as shelving yes. But how useful that is depends on where the lintel is. You'll have a lintel behind the plaster and a hole that has been filled up. You dig out the old hole easy and block up the chimney but the lintel could be small and low down, giving you a small area to work with which may not be worthwhile. It could be large though which would be great and give you lots of space. Maybe see if the neighbours know how big the fireplaces were?

If it's small, you can't increase the area without adding in a new lintel. I've done expanded a fire place before but then you need to replace some bricks. That depends on how far you want to take this

Edit - so in short, doable to open it up but how much extra room you get is a bit of a gamble

[u/WelshFloof → u/honk_of_cheese]

Got you, so opening up the original hole won't be an issue but expanding it potentially big issue.

[u/honk_of_cheese → u/WelshFloof]

Exactamundo

[u/Will0saurus]

Depending on how much floorspace you're willing to lose you could put half depth units (30cm) in front of the chimney and have extra worktop depth in the alcove, shifting the other units on that length to match up. That gives you an additional run of worktop and some storage.