GS Renovation removes chimney breasts across New Cross, from the terraces near the Horniman Museum side of Forest Hill to the SE14 streets running down towards Deptford. With over 30 years of structural experience in South East London, we take out redundant breasts safely, support the stack above and leave the room properly squared off.
Removing a chimney breast in New Cross terraces
Most New Cross terraces still carry their original chimney breasts in the reception rooms and bedrooms, projecting into the space and eating into usable floor area. Because a breast helps carry the masonry stack above it, you cannot simply knock it out. We begin every removal with a structural engineer assessing what the breast supports and how the stack will be held once it is gone.
On the lower floors we typically support the retained stack with steel gallows brackets bolted into the party wall, or a beam where the brackets are unsuitable. In houses where the stack runs full height and is redundant, it is often cleaner to remove the whole stack and make the roof good. Whichever route the engineer specifies, the stack is never left unsupported.
Party wall and building control in SE14
New Cross terraces are tightly built, 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, makes the work notifiable under the Party Wall Act, and we serve notice on your neighbour before starting. The structural support is notifiable under building regulations.
Lewisham Council's building control, or an approved inspector, inspects the support and signs off the finished work under the Building Regulations. This is not a planning matter for internal removal. We manage the whole job: the engineer's design, party wall notices, safe staged removal and propping, capping any redundant flue with ventilation to prevent damp, and replastering so no trace of the breast remains.
- Structural engineer calculations
- Party Wall Act notices for shared stacks
- Making good, plastering and reinstating the wall
- Flue capping, ventilation and building control sign-off
- Chimney breast removal on one or all floors
Trusted Chimney Breast Removal in New Cross
New Cross homeowners choose GS Renovation because we treat chimney breast removal as the structural job it is. You get an engineer-designed support solution using gallows brackets or a beam, party wall notices and Lewisham building control handled end to end, tidy working in an occupied SE14 home, and a certified, fully squared-off result, backed by 30+ years across South East London.
- 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