![]() For reference it took my son and I about 3 partial days to completely remove our fireplace with a 2 story chimney. I thought the 30K price was high, but don't know the house and don't know exactly what the contract would be for. I haven't discussed removal with the two chimney repair companies who bid on the repair. This seems insane to me, but what do I know? The other contractor who recommended removal asked us to consult an architect for a plan and permit before he would even bid the job. The $30K bid was from a general contractor who rolled all of the costs of repairing the roof and drywall into the chimney removal bid. We are getting a third bid from a chimney company this week so I guess we'll see what they say.įor those of you who have experience with complete removal, does $30K seem like a reasonable cost? The chimney is approximately 40 feet high, all brick, about half exposed (basement, attic and rooftop). Obviously taking it out would mean we'd never have to worry about it again, but spending $30K plus the cost of a new liner (and any unexpected costs that might pop up as the chimney comes out) is really unappealing when we've got people offering to repair/rebuild for $3K and it means we keep our beautiful old bricks. Thus far the two chimney pros who have looked at it haven't recommended a tear down, but two general contractors have, so it's really hard to know which is the better way to go. The stucco coating is probably not the most attractive thing, but no one sees the basement part of the stack regularly except the cats, and they're not that picky! Thoughts? We have one more company coming next week to bid the project so I'd love to know which of these approaches seems most viable. This bid is substantially more expensive (an additional $4K) than the previous one (which didn't include pouring a footer inside and was just to rebuild the stack with a lintel and install a stainless liner), but it seems like it will be a more structurally sound option. He also suggested a ProForm liner, which he said would be the most efficient thing to install given the height of the chimney and the shape of our roof (the chimney stack sits on top of a flat portion but the slope to get up to the flat part is VERY steep, and since we're built into a hillside they will have to use ladders to get up there). I'm guessing this was considered sound construction practice back in 1898! We had another chimney repair company come out today and he thought the best solution would be to pour a concrete footer inside the base to a height of about 3', then rebuild/repoint the stack and stucco coat it inside and out. Ludlow, you are right - it is basically a stack of bricks held up by the main house beams. No idea who janked this together but putting in a proper floor will be part of the project!Īnyway, I would appreciate any advice you can offer. The underside of the fireplace floor - I think it's cardboard. ![]() The chimney itself goes up between this beam and a similar on on the other side. The bricks sitting on the horizontal beam (which is the central beam to the house) are just sitting there, loose. The former hearth area, which was replaced with wood flooring sometime in the past. ![]() Given the variety of responses to our quandry, I wanted to ask you experts to see if anyone here had any thoughts on how to solve our problem. He said he thought he could save the chimney, by carefully repointing the corners/back/sides first, then installing a steel lintel under the fireplace for support before rebuilding the section with the hole. ![]() We don't want to remove this beautiful and original feature of our home, so we decided to call one more contractor, a chimney specialist. The engineer said that repointing most likely wouldn't improve the structural issue and suggested removal as the best option. We had a few masons come out to give us estimates for repointing, but one of them (a contractor) was alarmed enough by the condition of the base that he recommended we call in an engineer. The fireplace is non-functional but one side of the chimney is used to vent our furnace (with a liner). The parts of the stack and fireplace that are visible in the rest of the house are in somewhat better shape, but there are still a lot of joints that are almost devoid of mortar. There is a large hole in the stack in the basement (below the fireplace arch) and the mortar is pretty much gone. We have a central chimney in our 120 year old home that is badly in need of repair.
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