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Our brick chimney is leaning away from our house. The breast is in the living room, pretty much flush with the wall. The backside starts in the attached garage, goes through its roof and up past the second floor house roof.

We are thinking of removing it to below the garage roofline so we don't have to deal with the living room at this time. We also have a metal roof very much like this but not as steep:

enter image description here

The chimney basically goes through the peak of the garage roof, although not quite centered.

I expect we'll need a roofer and someone else to patch the vinyl siding (there is none where the chimney used to be against the house.

What kinds of things should I expect? Cost (understood to be very general), approach (hopefully not throwing the bricks down the chimney), damage to roof besides closing the hole, or anything else to watch out is what I'm after.

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  • I understand the chimney is having issues. Do you not want a chimney? Also the picture doesn't show the chimney well.
    – DMoore
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 5:26
  • We can't possibly give you a cost, as that'd be incredibly variable. The approach is typically tossing the bricks down, though.
    – DA01
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 5:32
  • If you don't want to drop the bricks down the flue and remove them from the bottom, build a wood slide out of plywood and 2X4's down the roof, so bricks will fall to the ground in a safe place and not damage the roofing.
    – shirlock homes
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 9:37
  • @DMoore It has other problems as well, such as not being secured to the house at all, and the fireplace itself would need work. It's more of a hassel. And that picture is not of my house, its just a very similar looking garage and seems to have the same exact metal roof (oddly).
    – Andy
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 16:22
  • @shirlockhomes Ok, I'll be sure and find someone that is willing to do that to avoid damaging the roof. Its only four years old.
    – Andy
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 16:23

2 Answers 2

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We were able to find someone to do this. They removed part of the roof on the garage and built a ramp over the ply wood to toss down bricks. They removed it to below the roof of the chimney and patched the hole in the roof and reinstalled the metal panels. They also put siding on the house where the chimney was.

No mess in the living room and it was about a fifth of the price of a teardown and rebuild, approx. $2300. This is in New England, so price might vary. Also, the foundation for the chimney wasn't done right when built, which is why the rebuild price would have been so high.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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Just in case someone else looks at this I will add an answer since Andy's answer seems a little off.

First to tear down a chimney is about $1000 in the US. There is siding, roof, and other repairs that have to be made. Not sure what Andy had going on since we never got a picture. $2500 might not be way off if they had to do a lot of things after the tear down.

Why I am writing this is the quote on the new chimney. You will still have to pay about 1K to tear down (and this is a definite DIY deal) and break up footer (if you need to). Not rocket science. The hardest part is getting rid of the bricks after.

The cost of materials really depends on what you want. But a 30 foot chimney can be made with 600-800 in materials and might average around 1500. Mason will cost on the low end $1000 and high end $2000 - extra $200-300 if you make them pour the footer (another easy DIY). The mason I have used charges me $1200 and he is done in 2.5 days.

So if you do the easy DIY things you are at 1500 in materials and 1500 for mason - so a good medium to high estimate is 3K. Add another 1K if you don't want to do anything.

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  • "The hardest part is getting rid of the bricks after" = I found it in credibly easy to get rid of bricks. Posting "free bricks, you haul" on craigslist usually brings out many people wanting them for garden pavers and the like.
    – DA01
    Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 6:19
  • The garage has a steel roof and a new panel had to be installed because the old one had been cut to accommodate the chimney. They also did the siding. I'll add more pictures.
    – Andy
    Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 19:53
  • @DA01 - Yes for bricks. Not for bricks with mortar attached.
    – DMoore
    Commented Sep 29, 2013 at 4:06
  • Andy not saying $2500 is a bad price at all. Was more on the 12.5K quote for a new one. If you have an old one everything is already framed out.
    – DMoore
    Commented Sep 29, 2013 at 4:07
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    @DMoore I suppose it depends on region. I had people clamoring for my mortar-encrusted pile of bricks.
    – DA01
    Commented Sep 29, 2013 at 16:07

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