Chimney Takedown

I’ve mentioned our messed up chimneys in an older post, but it’s time to revisit it again.

See that really tall chimney above? That was connected to a defunct beehive oven (it was bricked up inside so we couldn’t really use it). Our mason warned us five years ago that we ought to consider removing it because it wasn’t in great shape. He put a paving stone cap on it just to keep birds and animals out, but told us to think about taking it down if we weren’t going to use it. And since we had, oh, three other chimneys, Tig and I decided that this one could come down.

Tig Versus Chimney

Just kidding. We decided to hire this part out. Just getting the scaffolding (which we didn’t have), tearing the chimney down, and then hauling all the bricks to the dump would have taken him (or us) weeks, not to mention the physical wear and tear.

Instead, three guys came and tore the whole thing down to the base in one-and-a-half days.

Did you hear me? One-and-a-half days!

It was so worth it. Having this done propelled the project forward by weeks. They took away the bricks, removed the huge fieldstones at the base of the chimney and cleaned up.

There was still a random stair thingy, cast iron pipes hanging down, and major holes in two consecutive beams above to contend with. Tig fixed all of those issues.

The beams lying across the supporting brick walls were removed. We decided that this scary hole would make a great basement access from the mudroom. That way we could close off the staircase in the main house, keeping the cold basement air from coming into our living space.

And then, we would have a cupboard under the staircase (cue the Harry Potter music).

All-in-all, I was super happy to have the mason come in and take care of the chimney for us. Now I don’t have to worry about the brick tower possibly crashing down during a winter storm. We also gained a better access to the basement, and Tig didn’t have to do back-breaking labor.

Upward and onward!