GS Renovation removes chimney breasts across Bermondsey where the older converted buildings still carry them, from warehouse conversions with retained original brickwork to the borough's remaining period stock in SE16. With over 30 years of structural experience in Southwark, we support any retained stack correctly and square off the room, fully certified.
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 we 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, the party wall notices 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.
- Steel beam support where brackets are unsuitable
- Full chimney stack removal and roof making good
- Structural engineer calculations
- Party Wall Act notices for shared stacks
- Making good, plastering and reinstating the wall
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, party wall notices 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.
- Free, no-obligation quotations
- Over 30 years of experience
- Dedicated project management
- Fully insured and guaranteed work
- Building control and planning support
- Clean, tidy and reliable tradespeople