In the converted warehouses off Bermondsey Street a redundant flue can run several floors, and sealing it badly leaves a cold, damp shaft behind your plaster. We cap it at the head, vent it low down, and reinstate the wall properly. Masonry above is supported on steel designed by the engineer we appoint for the job.
Chimney breasts in Bermondsey buildings
Most of Bermondsey's new-build riverside apartments never had chimneys, but plenty of the converted warehouses and older buildings around SE16 retain original breasts, and homeowners often want them gone to free up floor space in a tightly planned flat. Because a breast helps carry the masonry above it, we never simply cut one out. An engineer first establishes what the stack weighs and what is bearing on it before we design the support.
On a lower floor with a stack still running above, we support the retained masonry on steel gallows brackets bolted into sound brickwork, or a small beam where brackets are unsuitable. Where the stack runs full height and serves nothing, we more often remove it entirely and make good the roof. Leaving a stack unsupported is never an option, whatever the room below looks like.
Party wall and freeholder consent in SE16
In converted Bermondsey buildings the chimney stack frequently sits within a party structure shared with the flat next door, so removing the breast or fixing gallows brackets into that wall is notifiable under the Party Wall Act and you serve notice on the affected neighbour first. As the flat is leasehold, the freeholder's licence to alter is needed too, and the managing agent will want the engineer's details on file before consenting.
The support work is controlled under the Building Regulations, so Southwark Council's building control inspects and certifies it; this is not a planning matter. We manage the engineer's design and the freeholder consent, remove and prop the breast safely, cap and ventilate any redundant flue to prevent damp, and replaster so there is no sign the breast was ever there.
Working inside a managed warehouse block
A Bermondsey warehouse conversion adds a layer a house does not have, because everything you take out has to travel down through a shared building. The managing agent will want working hours agreed, usually a weekday window, the lift protected or kept clear of rubble, and evidence of our insurance on file before we are let through the door. We arrange all of that ahead of the start date rather than on the morning. Neighbouring flats above and below are told the dates in advance, since the noise in a converted building travels through the structure rather than the air.
Brick from an old flue is heavy and dusty, so it leaves in sealed bags rather than open barrows, through the service entrance at agreed times. Original features complicate the making good. Exposed brickwork, cast iron columns and timber beams are often part of what the conversion was consented on, so we agree with you and the agent what is reinstated in matching brick and what is simply closed up.
- Making good, plastering and reinstating the wall line
- Structural engineer's calculations arranged and followed
- Ventilated caps and airbricks to disused flues
- Skirting, cornice and picture rail matched back in
- Steel beam support where gallows brackets are unsuitable
Trusted Chimney Breast Removal in Bermondsey
Bermondsey homeowners choose GS Renovation because we treat chimney breast removal as the structural job it is. You get an engineer-designed gallows-bracket or beam support and the freeholder's licence to alter handled end to end, Southwark building control sign-off, and tidy working in an occupied SE16 flat, backed by 30+ years.
- Paperwork and certificates handed over for when you sell
- The retained stack inspected from the loft before we start
- Gallows brackets fixed only into sound party wall brickwork
- Steel beam support used where gallows brackets are not suitable
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre