Removing chimney breast

[bungylaces]

Hi all.

We live in an old house around 1930's where the kitchen and lounge both had a fire place.
The lounge fireplace and and breast remains but the fire place in the kitchen has been removed and so has the part that protrudes through the roof. What remains is a couple of feet of brick work in the loft and the floor to ceiling brick work in the bedroom below.

To me this sounds like a lot of unsupported weight running through the middle of the house. Indeed the ceiling in the bedroom does have a lot of cracks around the breast.

I'm keen to remove the bricks from the loft, then remove the brick work from the bedroom. After this put in the missing rafters (in place of the hole the chimney left) in the loft so I can board over them at a later date then repair the ceiling and wall and flooring in the bedroom.

Big job single handed and keen to try and do as much as I can myself. It sounds quite straight forward but is anything sounding alarming to anyone?

Any advice or best practices I'll take them all

Thanks.

 

[Doggit]

As always, post some pictures please, but most times, the jobs do-able

 

[bungylaces]

Ah yes... Sorry.
This is all that's left in the loft. It's a Purlin type loft/roof and that beam isn't resting on it.
As it goes down into the bedroom it splits into two flumes, built inside one breast.

 

[Doggit]

If the purlins not resting on it, then I'm surprised they didn't do the job properly, so check behind it a bit more thoroughly before you take the rest out. The cracks in the bedroom may well just be there, or they may have been made by the movement of taking part of the chimney out. Obviously there has to be wall in the bedroom, and the chimney will be tied into it.

And make sure there are no ceiling joists supported by the chimney before you remove it in the bedroom.