A chimney a day... is quite enough thank you.
The stacks were cut off earlier in the week at 60 degrees and a 4-inch thick concrete slab set across the bottom to block off the flues and provide a firm base for our supporting trimmer to bear against. The supporting timber was then put in a couple of days later - once the concrete had set. So, yesterday and today, down came the rest from the bottom of the stack to just under floor level in the bedrooms upstairs - we're leaving the breasts in downstairs for decorative reasons.
Father was using two SDS drills. One loaded with a ten-millimetre drill bit to weaken the bonded-in fletton bricks. The other was set to roto-stop and loaded with a chisel for separating the courses brick-by-brick.
Meanwhile, I cleaned and carried every useable brick downstairs and stacked them in the back garden, threw the useless ones out of the window and bagged up the plaster and mortar rubble. My job was to keep the bricks and rubble flowing out of the room so father could concentrate on demolition.
So, that's the second of two gone. To make good, we'll need to chisel off the blackened parging and re-render and skim the bare bricks. Add a piece of plasterboard to our ceiling - the celing joist trimmer has been extended over the hole already. Plus there are the floors to fix.
At last, though, you can see what a huge difference it's made to these rooms. The main bedroom is now just about 13ft by 17ft (into the bay) plus the en-suite and the 2nd bedroom will be 12.5ft (into the bay) by just over 12ft, plus a bit extra at the entrance.
With the chimneys gone and the stacks supported we can breathe a sigh of relief that nothing catastrophic went wrong and turn attention to the services in the bedrooms and en-suite. Best get all the electricity, water and waste sorted while the floors are up!
chimneybreast half removed
A SDS hammer drill with roto-stop was indispensable
