I live in a mid terrace circa 1900s house and am looking to remove the ground floor chimney breast in the back room. After a few years of damp, chimney ventilation problems and general annoyance with the fireplace, I have decided to remove the problem completely and gain some extra much needed space in the living room.

My question - what are the steps and requirements to remove a ground floor chimney breast? I have made initial enquires with the local building control and they say it just needs signing off by them once the work has been done. I’ve also had a quote from a builder and details on what they would do; install a 700mm bracket to support the chimney breast above, which will leave an angled part of the wall to the ceiling. They say this is now how the work is done and steel beams are no more. I guess that’s because it’s a party wall?

I have also had a slurry along the wall where the chimney breast is to resolve a penetrating damp problem, due to the neighbours foundation being a foot or so higher than mine. The quote I’ve had so far includes new dry lining plasterboard across the whole wall once the breast is removed. I don’t want another problem with damp - is this a good solution? After having already paid 2k fixing the problem a few years ago, I don’t want it reappearing!

Advice from experienced builders would be most useful to make sure I’m going down the right path in the right way!

Thank you.