Chimney Breast Removal, Stack Removal and Repointing Cost in the UK

Removing one chimney breast in a single room costs £1,800 to £3,500 in the UK, removed, supported, plastered, skirted and decorated, with VAT included. Taking the whole breast out through every floor and dropping the stack as well runs £4,500 to £8,500 on the same basis. Stack only work sits lower: £900 to £2,500 to take it down and make the roof good, £1,500 to £3,500 to rebuild it above roof level and £400 to £1,200 to repoint it. This guide is written for builders and contractors pricing chimney work for a client.

What chimney breast removal actually involves

The chimney breast is the masonry that projects into a room, the flue is the duct inside it that carried smoke, and the stack is the part standing above the roof. Clients ask for very different jobs under the same name, and the price only makes sense once the scope is fixed:

• Removing a single breast in one room only, leaving the chimney above supported on gallows brackets or a small beam.
• Removing the full breast from ground floor to roof, with support at every floor it passes through.
• Removing the stack only, taking the brickwork down at or below roof level and leaving the breast inside the house.
• Rebuilding or repointing a stack that stays, for looks or because a neighbour still uses it.

Chimney breast removal is notifiable structural work under Part A of the Building Regulations, so building control has to see the support before anything is covered up. The rules are set out in Approved Document A.

It is a mini project, not a demolition

Priced on its own, a chimney job carries everything around the work as well as the work itself: floor and stair protection with dust sheets and a dust screen, scaffold or a tower where it touches the roof, propping, the brickwork coming out by hand, the support going in, a skip and muck away for heavy rubble, then making good the floor, plastering, new skirting to match, decorating the affected rooms and a clean down at the end.

A price for the bare demolition is not a price for the finished room. Rubble out and a hole in the floor is maybe half of what the client thinks they are buying. Every figure on this page is the finished job, supplied, removed and made good.

Chimney breast removal cost

A breast in a party wall sits at the top of the single floor range because the wall is shared and the work is tied to a notice served on the neighbour before anything starts.

Chimney stack work

A repoint is not a cheap rebuild. Cracked, bulging or loose brickwork needs the stack taking down and rebuilding, and a quote that prices a repoint on a stack in that state falls short once the scaffold is up and the mortar is being raked out.

Supporting the breast above

Where only part of the chimney comes out, the masonry left above has to be carried. Three options cover almost every job, and the cost below is the difference inside the finished job, not a separate bill:

Gallows brackets are the cheapest route and the one building control questions most, because they only work where the brickwork they bolt into is sound and the load above is light. The engineer's calculations decide it, not the builder's preference.

Separate fees

These are paid by the client on top of the builder's price:

Building control and the Party Wall Act

Chimney breast removal is structural work and always goes through building control, either as a building notice or a full plans application, with inspections before the support is covered and a completion certificate at the end. That certificate is what a buyer's solicitor asks for later.

Where the breast or stack sits on a wall shared with a neighbour, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies and notice is served on the adjoining owner before work starts, usually two months ahead for party structure work. If the neighbour consents in writing there is no further cost; if they dissent, surveyors produce an award. In a terrace the flues often run back to back, so the neighbour's flue can be on the other face of the same brickwork and has to stay working.

What the low end leaves out

The bottom of every range above is a lean price for an easy job, and it usually assumes:

• No scaffold, so stack work is reached off a tower or a ladder and anything at ridge height is out.
• The stack left standing on brackets, with the roof untouched.
• Rubble taken away as a load in a van or a grab rather than a skip on the drive.
• A plaster patch where the breast was, not a full skim of the wall, so the join shows under a light.
• No decorating at all, so the client gets bare patched plaster.
• No allowance for the old hearth, the flue opening or an uneven floor where the brickwork stood.

Half the price always means a sacrifice somewhere. Say in the quote which of those are in and which are not, and the conversation at the end is a short one.

Extras that regularly appear once the breast is out

Floor finishes, fireplace surrounds and new stoves are the client's choice and the client's budget: a reclaimed or new surround runs £200 to £1,500 depending on what they pick, and the builder prices the fitting around it.

Ventilation and capping

Any flue that stays, in use or redundant, has to breathe. Capping the stack with a vented cowl or a capping slab with a vent, and putting an air brick into the room below, is part of the finished price on every job above. Seal a flue at both ends with no ventilation and damp shows on the breast within a year, which comes straight back to the builder.

Worked example: three bed semi

A 1930s semi, breast removed in the lounge and the bedroom above, stack taken down below roof level and the tiles matched in:

• Protection, propping and the breast out on both floors.
• Steel beam on padstones carrying the brickwork, then the stack removed and the roof made good.
• Hearth filled, floors levelled, two rooms skimmed, new skirting and both rooms decorated, skip and clean down.

Priced as the whole breast including the stack, this sits at £4,500 to £8,500, with around £6,000 typical for a standard semi with reasonable access in the Midlands. On top, the client pays the engineer at £350 to £700, building control at £300 to £800, and a party wall surveyor at £900 to £2,000 if the neighbour dissents.

The same job in London and the South East, where access is tighter and scaffold often crosses a pavement, scales to around £7,800 typical, still inside the £4,500 to £8,500 range on this page.

Region

London and the South East sit at the upper end of every range on this page, and a tight terrace with no parking and scaffold over a pavement pushes past it. The North, the Midlands, Wales and Scotland sit at the lower end, where access is usually easier and a skip can go on the drive. As a guide, take the Midlands worked example of £6,000 as the baseline: London and the South East typically run 25 to 30% above it, the North and Wales 5 to 10% below it.

How long it takes on site

• Day 1: protection, dust screens, scaffold or tower up, propping in, first brickwork down.
• Days 2 to 3: breast out floor by floor, support fitted, stack down and the roof made good where it applies.
• Day 4: hearth filled, floor levelled, building control inspection before anything is covered.
• Days 5 to 6: plastering and skimming, drying time.
• Days 7 to 8: skirting, decorating, clean down and the skip away.

One breast in one room is two to three days. A full removal with the stack is one to two weeks once drying time is counted.

Is it worth removing a chimney breast

For a small bedroom, taking the breast out gives back half a square metre or more of usable floor and a flat wall to put a wardrobe against, which is often the whole point. Against that, the flue is gone for good, so a stove or an open fire in that room is off the table, and any future buyer who wants one is looking at a new flue. A redundant breast with a cold flue also loses a little heat and can carry damp, so removing it usually helps rather than hurts. Where the chimney still serves a boiler, a stove or a neighbour, it stays.

Price your own chimney job

Chimney work is priced on how much comes out, what was carrying what, and how far the making good goes. Our detailed construction estimate prices the job trade by trade from drawings or a site survey, with the support, scaffold, making good and finishes all in, and our estimating software gives builders the same breakdown in minutes when the job is a straightforward one. For the party wall side, see our guide to party wall notices and surveyor costs, and for the structural work our page on steel beams and load bearing walls.