Removing a chimney breast means taking away masonry that carries its own weight, and sometimes a stack above it as well. Whatever is left has to be supported, either on gallows brackets where they are accepted or on a steel beam. The structural engineer we appoint decides which. We survey, prop, remove, support, make good and arrange the building control inspections. This page covers what that involves in Royston.
Chimneys are a named characteristic of Royston and they read from the higher ground
The council's conservation area assessment names chimneys as a characteristic feature of Royston, and describes them as important in particular to views of the town from the higher ground to the south. The chimneys in Upper King Street are tall and narrow with elongated pots, built of red or gault brick, and are recorded as important to the townscape when seen from the higher ground of London Road.
That has a practical consequence for the design. Taking the breast out inside while leaving the stack standing is a different job from removing the stack, and it needs support for the masonry left above. Where the stack contributes to a protected view, that is the option to design around, and we set it out before anything is priced.
No permitted development right covering chimneys has been withdrawn in Royston
There is no Article 4 direction anywhere in Royston. North Hertfordshire has only two, both made on 9 October 2012, and they cover Hitchin Conservation Area and Stockens Green Conservation Area. The rights those directions remove elsewhere, including alteration of a house, roof alterations, chimneys and flues, and exterior painting, are not removed here.
That is about planning permission alone. The building regulations still apply to the structural work, and a listed building or a property inside the conservation area can need consent on its own account. We check the status of the property before the work is priced, and we make the building control application and book the inspections.
Not every Royston chimney breast sits inside the house
The Royston Museum building in Lower King Street has a large central external chimney breast on its facade, with a window inserted at ground floor level and a date plaque at first floor level. Mrs Barfield's Almshouses in Kneesworth Street, built in 1833 and enlarged in 1858, have tall gault brick chimneys projecting at intervals along the roof line and out of the end hips close to the eaves.
The Old Palace is now only half its original size, and its tall front chimneys were originally in the centre of a double gabled building. An external breast, a chimney rising through a hip, or a stack left off centre by an earlier demolition each change where the load goes and how it can be picked up. The survey settles that before the engineer designs the support.
- Ceiling and joist support where the breast carried them
- Steel beam support where gallows brackets are unsuitable
- Party Wall Act notices for stacks in a shared wall
- Fireplace opening infill and new plasterboard finish
- Rubble bagged and carried out rather than dropped inside
The GS Renovation Difference in Royston
A chimney breast removal is decided above the opening, not below it. What is left standing, the stack, the flue, the weathering and the neighbour's half of a shared stack, is what the design has to answer. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the support they specify, and make good the roof, the ceiling and the wall so nothing is left open to weather. Where the breast is on a party wall, that is a matter between you and your neighbour under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and we are not party wall surveyors. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, and the quotation is free.
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on
- Hearth and floor structure reinstated where the breast is removed
- Itemised pricing, so you can see what every stage costs
- Party Wall Act notices served for stacks in a shared wall
- Roof, flashing and leadwork made good where a stack comes down