Removing a chimney breast means supporting whatever is left above it, and in Tring the stack that shows from the street is a feature the conservation area appraisal picks out by name. Indicative London ranges, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026, put one floor with gallows brackets accepted at £1,500 to £2,500, one floor where a steel beam is needed at £2,200 to £3,250, and two floors at £3,000 to £5,000.
The chimneys here are part of what the appraisal protects
Dacorum's Tring appraisal treats them as a positive feature. It records that the original chimneys and chimney pots survive in the western character area, and says this greatly enlivens the view in the streets there. The estate buildings of around 1900 concentrated on Park Street and Park Road were designed by William Huckvale in the Old English or Domestic Revival style, which makes much use of timber framing, tall chimneys and sweeping tiled roofs.
That is an argument about the outside of the house rather than the inside. Taking a breast out at ground and first floor while the stack and pots stay put is a different proposition from dropping the stack to the roof line.
When chimney work needs planning permission in Tring
When it touches an elevation facing a road. Inside Tring conservation area, planning permission is required to install, alter or replace a chimney, flue or soil vent pipe on a wall or roof slope that fronts a highway. That applies where the wall or slope forms the principal or side elevation of the house. Dacorum Borough Council designated that conservation area on 6 October 1969.
Listing adds a further layer. Appendix 1 of the appraisal states a total of 54 statutory listed buildings inside the conservation area, and for a listed building any alteration to the stack is a separate consent question. We check whether your address falls inside the boundary before pricing anything that shows from the street.
What the breast is built of and what it is carrying
Brick, in the older streets. The appraisal gives the principal building material of the western character area as brick in a dark red to brownish colour, generally left bare so that the Flemish bond masonry can be seen. HMRC's council tax stock figures at 31 March 2025 record 1,310 dwellings built before 1900 across the three census areas covering Tring and its immediate villages, with a further 180 built between 1900 and 1918.
In a house of that age the breast can be carrying the stack above, a hearth on the floor above and part of the floor structure with it. Gallows brackets are only an option where the brickwork above is sound and the engineer says so. Where it is not, the answer is a steel beam, and the cost moves with it.
Who inspects the work
Hertfordshire Building Control. Dacorum Borough Council does not run its own building control service, and states that building control for the borough is provided by Hertfordshire Building Control. Chimney breast removal is notifiable work, so we coordinate the application and the inspections and make sure the support is seen before it is plastered over.
- Bedroom breast removal to reclaim usable floor space
- Full chimney stack removal and roof making good
- Ventilated caps and airbricks to disused flues
- Ground floor removal with the upper stack fully supported
- Soot and debris contained with screens and sheeting
Why Tring Homeowners Choose GS Renovation
Chimney work goes wrong in the order it is done, not in the doing. The consent question is about the elevation and the stack, the structural question is about what carries the remaining brickwork, and the second gets answered first more easily than you would expect. We settle the planning position and the engineer's design before anything is cut. The free quotation covers the making good, the flue capping and the ventilation, not just the removal.
- Founder-led team with 30+ years of hands-on experience
- Paperwork and certificates handed over for when you sell
- Steel beam support used where gallows brackets are not suitable
- Materials priced at options, so you choose the finish
- Party Wall Act notices served for stacks in a shared wall
- Free, no-obligation quotations