Can you send pics of the foundation you are asking about?

Your question(s) arn't completly clear but maybe this will tell you everything you need to know. From the standpoint of supporting the building,you can't hurt anything by removing every brick you see. Beneath all the brick in a fireplace there is a concrete foundation many times over strong as remainder of house. Just remove what you want and cover scares with what you like,the foundation will support it with ease.

Start on the roof and work your way down. Plan to seal the roof when you get below it asap. Other penetrations can be sealed at your leisure. Otherwise as klem said a fireplace is not structural and does not hold up the house.

An alternative to throwing away bricks is recycling them. See if anyone takes them in your area, they might even pay or at least haul them off for free. Rustic bricks are something some people look for.

http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-living/articles/64247.aspx

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/recycling-bricks-and-blocks-construction-projects

Hi all and thanks for your comments! I've got some pictures now which I'll post up so you can see what I'm talking about. The thing I'm worried about is that from what I can tell, for section of the chimney, the chimney IS the foundation?? The rest is concrete, but it is interrupted by the brick:

Westond,I'm not trying to be rude when i suggest you reconsider doing this yourself. The point I want to make is that you must have some degree of judgement on what you are looking at while performing a task such as this (largly due to the enormous collective weight of all that brick). At minium one should have have played with legos and dominoes rather than vidio games as a kid to know that the intire fireplace will fall on you if you remove a few of the wrong bricks before removing others from above. The pics are interesting and you have a nice place but I don't need pictures to tell you the fireplace is not holding your house up. Look at your own pics (better still,the house) and it's obiovus the brick in last pic is only one brick deep. I realize the little "soldiers" at top in last pic might appear to be holding the ceiling/floor up but they are there to fill a gap and do not support a thing. There are things that should never be attempted without a basic understanding because you can't get it off the net despite what some believe. Think of it like this,with mortor falling out as you say yours has,the brick would shift and alow house to fall if house was supported by brick in fireplace. Removing the fireplace is a grunt job,hire some experienced grunts and spend your time doing what you do to earn a living or just go fishing. Fixing the hole after brick are gone require's even more construction skill so be prepared to hire a finish carpenter.

Hi Klem, I've played with plenty of Legos. And, I work as a Mechanical Engineer, so I understand physics. Thanks for the low-down though ;-).

Again, as I said, we intend to take the chimney down from the top down. What I'm wondering is what needs to be done where the foundation bumps out at the fireplace. If I remove the fireplace, one can imagine there will be a big void there. Does that need to be just filled with concrete? Or does all that brick need to be taken out and a new piece of concrete poured in it's place? Some of this might be dictated by codes, so I was hoping to get some input on that.

I've finally found a contractor or two who are interested in taking on new work though, so that's a plus. I'm having a guy come by this week.

Also, as far as removing the fireplace ourselves, I've decided to do this as a cost-saving excersise. I've already had the chimney people quote me $2000 to take it out. I'd rather rent a dumpster, and bust my ass for a little bit and funnel that $2000 back into the post-demo repair work. Ya know?

Before you start tearing it down. Put an ad on your local craigslist, or other, free for the removal. Long shot, but those bricks are valuable.

otherwise, get started, you are going to see what you see when you get there.

You will have to do some framing, sheathing, insulating, and siding on the wall, in the basement you can remove the one layer of brick and there should be a concrete foundation behind it. No pic of roof so not sure if anything needs done there, I was originally thinking of your fireplace in the middle of the house, not on the exterior wall.

A rotary hammer with hammer only mode or a 20lb demo hammer would help greatly.

i see where you are coming from westond. As long as you can do as tim45 suggested " get started, you are going to see what you see when you get there." and deal with it on the run you will be fine. As Vith point's out,there will be need for"framing, sheathing, insulating, and siding on the wall," and I might add need for some imagination about how to handle details as they come up.

My fireplace just got torn out by my contractors. It's a one story house, so a little different. They prepped all day, cutting, chiseling, and whatnot, to separate the chimney from the house. Then they put a chain around several parts of the chimney, attached it to a truck, and wham, whole thing fell at once, at a planned spot. It was cool.

It was a long process with the planning and the prep took a long, long time. I imagine it would be a lot more with a taller chimney, and one without room to fall. (we've been doing major renovations so our yard is currently crap.)

Good luck.

Taking them down is usually pretty easy. I've done a few, and a 2 pound sledge makes it safe and controlled. Dislodge one or two bricks at a time, which you can then toss into your dumpster. You can even knock them into the chimney, and deal with them when you get down to that level. (make sure the rain shelf will stop the bricks or they'll do a number on your floor inside the house) The harder part, is dealing with the framing unknowns. Sometimes rafters tie to the brick, as well as floor joists & ceilings needing extending, etc. Just be prepared to mitigate those support areas as you go. The base is more of a water proofing issue. You could bump out an alcove on the first floor using the foundation and put a little shed style roof on it, or figure out a way to demo or cover the protruding concrete if just filling in the wall.