Should You Remove a Chimney You Don't Use?

The case for leaving it

A chimney that nobody uses does no harm while it is in good order, and removing it is a bigger step than most people expect. It is a permanent change to the roofline, it needs the roof to be made good where the stack stood, and in many houses it affects the structure inside. If the stack is sound, the flashings are watertight and the top is capped and ventilated, the most sensible plan is to leave it alone and check it every few years.

There are other reasons to leave a stack. On older and period houses, the chimneys are part of the look of the roof and of the street. In a conservation area the council may not want them to go. Buyers often like a fireplace they might use one day, and a house with its original features can be easier to sell. A chimney also gives you the option to fit a stove later, which you cannot do once the flue is gone.

The case for taking it down

Removal comes into its own when the stack has become a liability. These are the situations where we most often see it considered.

• The brickwork is badly weathered or leaning, and rebuilding the stack would cost a good share of what removal does. Our page on leaning chimney stacks explains how we judge it.
• Water keeps getting in around the base of the stack, and the lead work, tiles and ceilings below have suffered repeatedly.
• The stack is on a roof that is about to be replaced, so taking it down avoids building scaffold and flashings around it twice.
• The room below the breast is wanted for other uses, and the breast itself is being removed.
• The stack is shared and neighbours have agreed to a joint removal.
• The cost of repeated maintenance, with scaffold each time, outweighs the benefit of having it.

In the end, it is a trade between the one-off cost of removal and the continuing cost of keeping a stack you do not use. If the stack needs a major repair anyway, removal becomes a fair option to price alongside. We give both figures so you can see them side by side.

What removal involves

Taking down a stack means more than knocking it off. The brickwork is removed in sections, usually by hand from scaffold, and lowered or chuted down in a controlled way. The flues are sealed or ventilated, and the roof is made good with rafters trimmed and supported, new battens, underlay and tiles or slates, matching the existing roof as closely as available. The ceiling and loft below need checking and any chimney breast in the loft is dealt with. Where the stack passes through the house, further work may follow inside. Our page on chimney stack removal covers the method.

The rules apply too. Taking a stack down is generally a matter for building control, and listed buildings and conservation areas carry extra controls. Read whether you need planning permission to remove a chimney before you commit. If the stack is shared with next door, talk to them first.

The middle route: cap and leave

For many owners the best answer sits between the two. The stack stays, the top is capped with a ventilated cap, any pots are secure, and the flaunching and flashings are made good. The look is kept, damp is controlled, and the chimney costs little thereafter. Our guides to capping a disused chimney and ventilating a capped chimney describe how.

Questions to ask before you decide

A few checks help. Is the house listed, or in a conservation area where the stack is part of the street picture? Is the stack shared with a neighbour? Is any appliance still connected to the flue, such as a boiler, a gas fire or a stove in another room? If so, removal is off the table until that has been dealt with. Do you plan to re-roof soon? If you do, the stack can be priced as part of that work, so the extra scaffold is not paid for twice. And what does the roof look like around the stack today? If the flashings and tiles around it are worn, the repair cost is rising whichever way you go. Photographs of the stack and its surroundings make these questions easier to answer.

Cost and how to decide

Prices vary with height, access and the roof repair needed, so published figures are only a guide. UK cost guides give chimney repair from £500 up to £2,000, and a rebuild or removal sits above or around that depending on scale. Scaffold may be a large share, and one guide quotes roofline scaffold hire anywhere from £200 to £2,600. Your fixed quote follows the survey, and it prices each option separately.

We aim to tell you honestly which option fits your stack. If repointing and a new cap will do, we say so. If the stack has had its day, we say that as well. Start with a free survey with photographs of your own chimney, and compare the written prices for repair, capping and removal. For the whole range of our work, see chimney repairs in Basingstoke.