The suburb of Enfield contains a mixture of housing including converted victorian flats, victorian and edwardian terraces and 1930s semi-detached houses. This particular property in Enfield was a 1920’s house, with an approximate foot print of 8×6.5m (8m deep and 6.5m wide). The owner had recently bought the house and wanted to do some remodelling before moving in with his family. with most new home owners, our customer wanted all week completed before moving in giving us a 2 week window. The customers requirements were to remove chimney breasts from four rooms, 2 on the ground and on 2 upper floor. Before any structural work such as chimney breast removals can begin building control must be informed and due to the special relationship we have with building control we are able to start 5 days after we submit the application. Having informed building control and waiting 5 days, this leaves and a 5 day window to complete the work. Details of the work include:
- Arrange for the hire of 2 skips to arrive 1 day apart. Most of our clients are surprised at how many bricks make up a chimney breast hence the need for 2 skips.
- The first thing we do before starting any chimney breast removal work is to protect the walls, floors, hallways, stairs and furniture with dust sheets.
- The next step was to remove an old gas fire which was no longer required and cap it off ensuring that there were no leaks.
- Both upstairs bedrooms had utilitysockets on the chimney breasts which we had to move before breaking out a chimney.
- The next step was remove the chimney breasts taking care to minimise the dirt and dust from escaping to other areas of the house.
- This is further helped by using a dust extractor to further miminise the amount of dust dispensed when removing the chimney breasts.
- Having removed all the chimney breasts and cleared all the bricks and dust into the skip, the next step is to support the remaining chimney breasts and chimney stack in the loft with 2 pairs of gallows brackets.
- gallows brackets and concrete lintels are fitted under each chimney breast in the loft supporting the chimney stack above.
- Having removed all the chimney breasts, we then closed the floor areas with joists and boards and the ceilings with timber and plaster boards.
- We then Plastered skims for the back walls and ceiling areas leaving the wall ready to be painted or wall papered. Our customer arranged for decorators to come in and finish after we’d completed our work.
- We then fit matching skirting boards on the wall leaving the wall in a state leaving no evidence of a chimney breast being previously there.
- We had arranged for the building inspector to come and inspect the work on the last day that we were on site. The work was passed and the owner would have a certificate from Barnet council in the post.
Call us on 020 8346 2254 to discuss your requirements or send us an enquiry using our enquiry form. You can also request a free quote using our free quote form.
