Residential · Structural
Chimney breast removal in London
The brickwork is the quick part. What matters is what holds up the chimney above it afterwards, and who has checked the sums.
- In-house crew
- Design and build
Updated September 2026
Removing a chimney breast takes the fireplace and its brickwork out of a room and leaves the chimney above supported on gallows brackets or a steel beam, designed by a structural engineer and inspected by building control before it is covered. Published London guides put a single-floor removal at £2,000–£5,000. MO Team removes chimney breasts as structural work across London.
What is actually holding the chimney up
In a London terrace the chimney breasts sit back to back on the party wall, one on each floor, and each carries the one above it up to a stack that is often shared with next door. Take out the ground-floor breast and the first-floor breast and the stack are left hanging on nothing, which is why the job is a structural alteration rather than a demolition. There are two ways to hold what remains. Gallows brackets are steel brackets bolted into the wall beneath the cut, and they are the cheaper option where building control will accept them: a wall in sound condition, a breast that is only coming out on one floor, and a neighbour's breast still in place on the other side of the party wall. A steel beam bearing on padstones is the default where more than one floor is removed, where the wall is doubtful, or where the brickwork above is heavier than brackets are designed for. Full removal, breast and stack together, adds roof work and scaffold and turns a two-room job into a whole-house one.
The paperwork is the same whichever support is used. A structural engineer sizes the brackets or the beam against the weight left above, and London practices quote £450–£800 for a single-beam calculation. Building control is notified, inspects the support before it is boxed in and issues the completion certificate a buyer's solicitor will ask for later; Hillingdon publishes a charge of £360 including VAT for a chimney breast removal (2025/26 schedule). Where the breast is on the party wall, cutting into the wall to fix brackets or bear a beam and cutting away the projecting breast are rights under section 2 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, which means a party structure notice to the neighbour at least two months before work starts and, if they do not consent in writing within 14 days, a surveyor's award at £700–£1,800 per adjoining owner. Planning permission is not normally needed for internal work, though a listed house needs consent and removing an external stack in a conservation area is worth checking with the borough. Published London guides put the whole package for one floor at £2,000–£5,000 and full removal including the stack at £6,000–£10,000, the second figure resting on a single London source.
We do this as part of our structural alterations work: the survey, the engineer, the notices, the propping, the support and the making good under one contract and one crew, rather than a builder who cuts and an engineer you have to find yourself. We will also tell you plainly when brackets will not pass and a beam is the honest answer, because the cheaper option is only cheaper if building control signs it off. The same team handles the wall that so often comes out at the same time, covered on our load-bearing wall removal page, and our guide to party wall agreements in London explains the notice and what happens if a neighbour objects.
What chimney breast removal includes
Priced as one package: the check on what is above, the calculation, the support, the inspection and the finished room.
What is in the price
How it runs
- 01
Look above and next door
Before anything is priced we establish what the breast is carrying: which floors still have a breast, whether the stack above the roof is shared, whether anyone on either side still uses a flue, and whether the party wall is sound enough to take brackets. We also check the floor construction, because the hearth usually sits on its own brick trimmer.
- You receive
- A marked-up sketch of the stack, floor by floor, and a recommendation: brackets or steel
- 02
Get the calculation
Our engineer sizes the support for the weight left above, the remaining breast, the flue and the stack, and specifies either the gallows brackets and their fixings or a beam with its padstones. The calculation is what building control checks and what a party wall surveyor will want to see.
- You receive
- Structural calculations and a drawing you can hand to building control and to a surveyor
- 03
Serve notice and lodge the application
Where the breast is on the party wall, the party structure notice goes to the neighbour at least two months before the start date. Building control is notified at the same time and the inspection is booked, so the two-month period, not the site work, sets the earliest start.
- You receive
- A served notice, a building control reference and a start date that respects the notice period
- 04
Prop, remove, support
The room is sealed and the breast above is propped. The brickwork comes down from the top of the room to the hearth, within the room rather than through the wall, then the brackets or the beam go in and are packed tight to the brickwork above. Building control inspects before anything is boxed in.
- You receive
- The support installed, inspected and photographed before it is cased
- 05
Seal, ventilate, make good
The flue left above is capped or ventilated so it cannot draw damp, the support is cased and plastered, the floor is patched where the hearth was and the skirting runs straight through. Building control issues the completion certificate, and the certificate and the calculation go in your handover pack.
- You receive
- A completion certificate and a room with no trace of the breast
Regulations that apply to chimney breast removal
Work of this kind
Pop Mart, Trafford Centre
- Type
- Brand rollout
Common questions
Straight answers.
Not answered here?
Tell us what you are planning. We read every enquiry ourselves and reply within one working day.
Ask us directly07424 445105Published London guides put removing a chimney breast on one floor at £2,000–£5,000 as a package, with gallows brackets at the lower end and a steel beam at the upper end, including the engineer and building control. Full removal of every breast and the stack is quoted at £6,000–£10,000 by the one London source that prices it, so treat that as indicative. Party wall fees of £700–£1,800 per neighbour come on top where the breast is on a shared wall. These are September 2026 market ranges, not our quotes.
Not planning permission, in most cases: internal alterations to an unlisted house do not need a planning application. What you do need is Building Regulations approval, because the work changes the structure, and building control will inspect the brackets or beam before they are covered. A listed building needs listed building consent, and removing the stack above the roof in a conservation area is worth a call to the borough first. If the breast is on the party wall, the neighbour also gets a notice under the Party Wall Act.
Yes. The breast you remove is carrying the breast above it and the stack, and something has to take that weight. An engineer calculates the load left above and specifies either gallows brackets with their fixings or a beam with its padstones, and building control checks the work against that calculation. London practices quote £450–£800 for a single-beam calculation. Our engineer's design is part of the package, so you are not appointing one separately and coordinating between two parties yourself.
It is not illegal to do building work on your own house, but the work is still controlled by the Building Regulations and the Party Wall Act, and this particular job is one of the worst to get wrong: the brickwork above a cut breast weighs tonnes and comes down without warning if it is not propped and supported correctly. Removal without a calculation, an inspection and a certificate also surfaces when you sell, when the buyer's surveyor finds a breast upstairs sitting on nothing they can see.
Most building control bodies accept gallows brackets only in a narrow case: a breast coming out on one floor, a party wall in good condition that is thick enough to take the fixings, and the neighbour's breast still in place behind it to share the load. Outside that case, where two floors come out, where the wall is doubtful or where the remaining brickwork is heavy, the answer is a steel beam bearing on padstones. The engineer decides on the evidence and building control confirms it; we will tell you which before we price.
If the breast sits on the wall you share with next door, yes. Cutting into a party wall to fix brackets or bear a beam and cutting away a projecting chimney breast are rights under section 2 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, which require a party structure notice at least two months before work starts. If the neighbour consents in writing within 14 days that is the agreement; if they dissent or do nothing, surveyors settle the matter by an award, at £700–£1,800 per neighbour for an agreed surveyor in London.
Every chimney breast is carrying at least the breast and stack above it, so treat it as structural by default. Some carry more: floor joists or a landing trimmed into the side of the breast, or a purlin bearing on it in the roof. The signs are joists running towards the breast rather than past it, and walls or timbers that stop at it rather than continue. Only an engineer can confirm it, which is why the survey opens a small area rather than guessing from the plaster.
It gains the floor area of the breast plus the alcoves either side, which in a Victorian room turns two awkward recesses into one straight wall for a kitchen run, a bed or wardrobes, and it is the reason most people do it. Against that you lose a period feature some buyers value, you take on a structural job with fees, and if only one floor is done the room above keeps its breast. It is worth it when the layout genuinely does not work with the breast in; it rarely is for the space alone.
Yes, provided the flue can still breathe. A flue that is sealed top and bottom collects condensation and shows up as damp patches on the chimney breast a winter later. The usual approach is a ventilated cap or cowl at the top, a vent into the room at the bottom, and no fire ever lit in it again. If a gas fire or stove is being removed at the same time, the appliance is disconnected by a registered engineer first. The same applies to the flue left above a removed breast.
Yes, but the beam has to be designed for both jobs at once: it carries the wall above the opening and, if the breast is coming out too, the chimney above that. The result is usually a heavier steel and larger padstones than a plain opening, and building control will want a single calculation covering the whole arrangement. Published London figures for a single opening start at £2,500–£5,000 and a large open-plan arrangement with several beams runs £5,000–£15,000, before the breast removal itself.
Want the fireplace gone and the room back?
Send a photo of the breast, one of the room above it and the address. We will say whether brackets are likely to pass, whether the neighbour needs a notice, and roughly what the job involves before anyone visits.