Rebuilding a 16 flue chimney stack

[Nigel Watts]

Having spotted some loose stucco on the main chimney stack which rises from the party wall of my adjoining neighbour my builder has extended the scaffolding up to the pitch of the roof so he can mend it. After cutting away some loose render he informed me that the brickwork behind the stucoo (which has later been skimmed with cenent) was sodden and the mortar so loose that the bricks were coming away in his hands. He thinks the whole thing need rebuilding. I've yet to get up there mysel to have a look but will do so at the weekend.

The stack is quite large, accommodating no fewer than sixteen flues and pots (one for each of the back and front rooms over four storeys, on both sides of the party wall).

Does anyone have any experience of doing this? In particular I was wondering if we needed:

- an engineer's opinion
- a party wall agreement
- listed building consent
- to comply with modern building regs?

 

[Feltwell]

Personally I'd say:-

a) No - it should be obvious when the builder hits good brickwork whilst taking it down. The only real way to see how bad it is will be to take it apart I'm afraid. Should be well within the scope of a good builder to repair a stack though, even a large one.

b) Strictly speaking yes, in real world I'd say it depends on how you get on with your neighbour. Who is going to pay for this? Are they the type that will split the cost 50/50?

c) Not my area, but if it's like for like repair that I can't see why you would need LBC

d) Not sure, but it's worked OK for a long time, I wouldn't feel the need to tell building control myself!