A first-floor breast in a W6 or SW6 terrace takes up roughly 0.6 square metres, the difference between a wardrobe fitting and not fitting. Removing it, and the one below, opens both rooms up. We appoint the structural engineer, install the beam that carries the retained stack, and serve party wall notice on the adjoining owner.
Removing a chimney breast in Hammersmith and Fulham
Most of the borough's bay-fronted terraces still carry their original chimney breasts in the reception rooms and bedrooms, and because the breast helps support the masonry stack above, it cannot simply be hacked out. We begin every job with a structural engineer's assessment of what is bearing on the breast, so the retained stack is never left unsupported once the lower section is gone.
On the lower floors we support the stack that remains with steel gallows brackets bolted into the party wall, or a small beam where brackets are unsuitable. In many W12 and SW6 houses where the stack runs full height and the flues are long redundant, we more often remove the whole stack and make good the roof, which frees floor space on every level.
Party wall and building control in W6
Across Fulham, Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush the terraces are built wall-to-wall, so the chimney stack almost always sits within the party wall shared with the house next door. Removing the breast or bolting gallows brackets into that shared wall is notifiable under the Party Wall Act, so you serve notice on the neighbour before any work begins.
The structural support is notifiable under the Building Regulations, and Hammersmith and Fulham Council's building control signs off the brackets or beam, not the planning department. We manage the lot: the engineer's calculations, safe removal and propping, capping any redundant flue with ventilation to prevent damp, and replastering so there is no trace the breast was ever there.
Back-to-back flues and the neighbour's side
In the borough's terraces the stack is usually shared, with your flues and next door's rising back to back in the same block of brickwork. That matters when a breast comes out, because the party wall between the two sets of flues can be as little as a half brick, and a careless demolition breaks through into a flue that is still in use on the other side and belongs to someone else entirely.
The consequence is not theoretical. A hole into a working flue lets smoke or, worse, combustion products from a neighbour's gas appliance find their way into your rooms. We take the brickwork back to the withes carefully, seal any breach in a shared flue with solid masonry rather than expanding foam, and check from the loft that what is left is intact. If a flue on either side is still live, the engineer's detail allows for it and the neighbour is told what we found.
Getting the room ready before we arrive
The week before we start is yours, and what you do with it decides how smoothly the job runs. The room wants to be genuinely empty rather than cleared to one side: furniture out, pictures off the walls of the adjoining rooms as well as this one, curtains and blinds down, and anything fragile elsewhere in the house moved away from the shared walls, because breaking out brickwork carries vibration further than people expect.
Carpet is worth lifting yourself if you intend to keep it, since it will not survive being rolled against a wall under brick dust. Tell us about a cat that bolts, a shift worker sleeping in the day, or a home office that cannot be moved, and we plan around it. In the borough's converted flats we also ask you to warn whoever lives below, because the noise travels down through the structure far more than it travels sideways.
- Making good, plastering and reinstating the wall line
- Flue capping with ventilation to keep the stack dry
- Soot and debris contained with screens and sheeting
- Building control notification and inspection sign-off
- Full chimney stack removal and roof making good
Why Hammersmith and Fulham Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
Hammersmith and Fulham homeowners choose GS Renovation because we treat chimney breast removal as the structural job it is. You get an engineer-designed support solution, party wall and building control handled end to end, tidy working in an occupied W6 or SW6 home, and a fully certified, replastered result, backed by 30-plus years across the borough.
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- Flue capped with ventilation so the remaining stack stays dry
- A dedicated project manager from first survey to handover
- Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
- Cornice, skirting and picture rail matched back in
- Gallows brackets fixed only into sound party wall brickwork