Removing Brick Around Stove?
What does it take to remove the brick surrounding a stove in an old kitchen? Our kitchen is in the back of the garden level of our duplex. The stove sits in a nook that we guess may be the old brick fireplace now covered in painted panelling. One of the brownstoner reno blogs looked…
What does it take to remove the brick surrounding a stove in an old kitchen?
Our kitchen is in the back of the garden level of our duplex. The stove sits in a nook that we guess may be the old brick fireplace now covered in painted panelling. One of the brownstoner reno blogs looked like it had a stove nook like ours. It is awkward to cook because the stove hood basically sits at eye level.
I am just curious – we can’t make a change because we are renters – what is involved in removing the brick surrounding the stove? Does it require a major renovation? Permits? an engineer? just curious. I like to imagine.
Thanks.
I know someone whose chimney collapsed onto her bed — which she had just left one second before. She would have been killed if she were still sitting there. This was on the top floor of an old building in Manhattan. Evidently, at some point the fireplaces had all been removed without the proper shoring. She moved out immediately and the last I heard was suing the landlord.
Anyway, you could also move the stove. You would need to relocate the gas pipe. This has to be permitted and done by licensed professional plumbers with a black pipe license. If you’re on the first floor, this might cost somewhere between $800 and $3,000, depending. Nu-Lite of Maspeth is very skilled at these things if you need a plumber.
If you locate it between the windows, I would not plan on ever using curtains or mini-blinds with cords. Too dangerous. Wooden shutters maybe.
Probably the best option is to keep the stove where it is and raise the hood — but as other posters suggest above, that will probably cost a few thousand dollars.
So…2nd question…
for those many brownstones that no longer have a fireplace in the back room of the garden level does that mean that at some point in an earlier renovation the entire chimney was removed from bottom to roof – or does it mean that these early renovations involved all the shoring that was described above?
Thanks.
You need at a min. a structural engineer, but one who is comfortable dealing with shoring issues as well as designing the new beams to support what you want to take out. You may find it hard to get an engineer that will deal with both issues while creating the drawings necessary to file, in that case hire an architect who will take care of it all for you. We just hire the proper engineer. Whatever you do, do NOT do this on your own. DOB will not allow you as the owner to pull a permit dealing with structural issues.
Definitely NOT DIY. Even if approved plans, DOB is not going to give a homeowner a permit for this if anyone is awake at the permit counter. As previous posters note, there is a lot above this that needs to be resupported and even most HIC contractors are unprepared to deal with this.
Well. It makes sense now why the landlord has never done it. Sounds like it would be done as part of a bigger renovation with the related procedures and costs.
Thanks for the information!
# 2 is correct. You need a permit by law. realisticly is an entire different situation. Any work which modifies he existing layout is not considered as minor or ordinary maimtenance and tehrefore plans and permits are required.
Are you talking about taking down the brick directly over the stove to raise the headroom over the stove, or all the brick? A lot of the fireplaces that have been converted to stove nooks have active flues in the side columns. This obviously makes removal of the side bricks unrealistic. Even if there is no active flue, you would have to take all of the bricks down from the stove level to the top of the chimney. If it’s a matter of removing a foot or two worth of bricks above the stove, and putting in a steel lintel and then backfilling. It’s not a terribly complicated job if you know what you’re doing. That being said, I wouldn’t undertake it myself unless I considered myself very skilled at DIY. The fact that you asked what was involved indicates that you should probably start on some simpler projects (I know you’re just dreaming, but this is one of those dreams that could turn into a nightmare if you’re not careful).
You’ll know very quickly if it has active flues by going down into the basement and seeing if the boiler, hotwater heater, or anything else is vented into the chimney.
It’s a small enough job that I’d be comfortable doing it without a permit or an engineer, and I would think most GC’s would feel the same. I know that’s not the correct answer, but it’s the realistic answer for most construction that happens in Brooklyn.
It’s a really big deal. The “nook” is the old cooking hearth. The hearth is connected to the chimney that goes up through all the floors above you. The chimney has to be supported above you. It’s possible too that the chimney may be used to vent a boiler or hot water heater.