Chimney Stack Removal & Roof Re-Tile — Heath Hill Avenue, Bevendean
Disused chimney stack removed below roof line on a Bevendean property — ridge tree and rafters installed, new felt and batten laid, and roof tiled back up to finish by Kirby's BPM.
Project Details
On Heath Hill Avenue in Bevendean, Brighton, we were called in to take out a chimney stack that was no longer needed and had become a source of ongoing maintenance concern. The brief was to remove the stack cleanly below roof line and reinstate the roof structure so the property was left watertight and structurally sound — with no trace of the chimney left above the tiles.
The Problem
Chimney stacks are one of the most exposed parts of any older property, and once a stack is no longer in use it still needs ongoing repointing, flashing and weatherproofing to stay sound — otherwise it becomes a regular source of leaks and a long-term liability. On this Bevendean home, the owners had decided the cost and upkeep of keeping a redundant stack no longer made sense, and wanted it taken down properly rather than capped and left to deteriorate.
The Work
The job ran in four stages:
- Stack demolition. The chimney stack was carefully taken down below roof line, with the surrounding tiles stripped back to give clean access to the timbers beneath.
- Ridge tree and rafters. With the stack gone, the roof structure was reinstated — a new ridge tree was installed and the rafters trimmed and supported to tie the opening back into the surrounding roof properly.
- Felt and batten. A high-performance breathable membrane and new tanalised battens were laid across the reinstated section, ready for tiling.
- Re-tiling. Matching tiles were fixed back over the new structure and the roof was weathered in, leaving a clean, uninterrupted roof slope with no sign the chimney had ever been there.
The Result
The chimney is gone, the roof structure is fully reinstated, and the property is watertight with a seamless tile finish across the repaired slope. Taking the stack out below roof line means the owners no longer have an exposed masonry structure to maintain, and the roof is now structurally continuous rather than cut around a redundant chimney.
Project Gallery
Frequently Asked Questions
The stack is taken down to just below the roofline — not all the way down through the house — and the opening in the roof is structurally reinstated. That means installing a ridge tree to carry the trimmers, trimming and supporting the cut rafters, then lining the roof with new felt and batten and tiling back over. The result is a continuous roof slope with the chimney gone above the tiles but the breast left in place internally.
Chimney stacks sit in the middle of the roof structure, and the rafters around them are cut to make room. When the stack comes out, those cut rafters have nothing to bear on. A ridge tree is a horizontal timber that carries trimmers, allowing the cut rafters to be properly supported and tied back into the surrounding roof. Without it, the roof would be structurally weak across the opening.
No — it is perfectly possible to remove just the stack above roof line and leave the breast inside the property. Many homeowners do exactly this to eliminate the external maintenance burden while keeping the internal chimney breast as a feature. If you later decide to take the breast out as well, that is a separate job involving structural support of any load it carries.
We use matching tiles wherever possible. On an older weathered roof there is always some colour difference between the existing tiles and the new ones, but this blends in over a season or two as the new tiles weather. Where an exact match is no longer available, we discuss options with the client before proceeding.
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