The day is near

ChrisJ

On the 13th my 110 year old brick chimney is going to be torn down.  It goes up through the center of the house so several walls will have to be opened.



I realize this may not be the best place to as but, what should I expect with this?  I realize anything like this is going to be messy but how hard do these chimneys usually come apart?  Are we talking sledge hammers and chips of brick and soot flying all over?  How do they usually take them apart and remove the bricks\mess? 

JasonA

Lime mortar

A 110 year old chimney is most likely built with lime and sand mortar not the the more modern lime, portland cement and sand mortar. Mortar without portland cement is relatively soft and once you get started you may be able to pull the bricks apart by hand. This is all based upon the assumption that the chimney is original and has not been relined with a clay flue tiles.



If the chimney is unlined and has seen coal fires in the past, expect a lot of fluffy soot deposits on the inside face of the bricks. Messy it will be but you should be able to relatively gently take the entire chimney apart, brick by brick.

ChrisJ

Thank you

for your response.  You made me feel a little better, though I have no way of knowing how careful the guys will be.  I assume they do stuff like this all of the time and try to keep things as clean as possible.



I *assume* the chimney is original of course you never know I suppose.  Only the top section is clay lined as it appears to have been rebuilt at one time.  90% of the chimney is unlined and rectangular.  For what its worth I believe the outside dimensions are 12" x 17".

Rod

Chimney Demo

Hi Chris -  I agree with Jason. It isn't as bad a job as you would think. I had one of our chimneys, which I know was put in 1889, done two years ago. I was apprehensive at first as I thought it was going to take some serious demolition- jack hammers etc.  In fact it was rather scary how easily it came apart. They just unstacked it by hand, a few bricks at a time, into buckets and carried them out to their truck.The biggest mess is the wood lath and horse hair plaster, which since you're doing yourself. is easy to keep under control.  You might use some plastic drop cloths to cover furniture /books cases etc.

Another thiing we did was to stretch a plastic drop cloth from ceiling to floor to seal off the room. We used a couple of 1x2 wood strips to hold the ends in the the corners of the ceiling. We put two strip together and "telescoped" them out till they fit and then clamped the wood strips in the middle. In our case I'm not sure this was necessary as the drop clothes on the furniture (also used) worked fine.

Glad to see you are coming along so well.

- Rod