Removing chimney breast

[SCLMCNR]

Last year I had one of my chimneys removed, on the builders advice. The chimney breast remains intact. Now I want to knock two rooms into one on the ground floor - this involves removing the chimney breast, and a supporting wall. Will I also have to have the chimney breast removed on the first floor as well? On the first floor the chimney breast is in an external wall.
So far I have had one estimate, which seemed incredibly high, obviously I am going to get more quotes. I'm just nervous of any builders who might think as a woman on her own, without a clue, that the price could be inflated or unnecessary work done. No offence to any builders, I know the vast majority of you are ok!!

[The Builder]

There are too many ifs and questions to go into here....anyone would really have to look at it to give advice. The best advice for someone in your position is to hire a Structural Engineer. Depending where you are........expect to pay around 50 to 70 pounds per hour. You'll need one anyway to do the structural calculations needed by Building Control (building regulations).
His final bill would be around (wild guess here) �500
You'll have his assurances (plus indemnity insurance).....and..........someone on your side who can speak........."Builderish" (subset of English........just)..............
Good luck

[Lonnie]

I'm not a builder, but don't forget, the chimney breast is you main source of ventilation, so unless you put something in, you'll start getting mould everywhere.

This happened to me, cured it now, but just in case.

[Jugglering]

If you want to remove a chimney breast on the ground floor that has a chimney breast directly above it on the first floor (and which it therefore supports), you will need to either remove the first floor one (and any chimneys above, up to and including roof level) or provide some sort of support for the first floor chimney. As The Builder states, get a Structural Engineer's advice before you do anything......if you can't find one, then contact the Institute of Structural Engineers (http://www.istructe.org/) for the names of some in your area. Go to the "Quick Links" section of that webpage (top right) and have a nose around "Find an Engineer"... you'll probably want the Domestic : Lofts/Conversions/Knock Throughs or Structural Inspection/Appraisal sections, just pop in your postcode etc and contact the companies listed for a quote.

[fieldo]

hi my estimate for this job would be around 1200 pounds not as diffacult as you might think