"So...ya'll have done this before?" Many many times. Some times to remove them, sometimes to rebuild them. No wood should touch the chimney. If you see wood going into a pocket (shallow depression) in the brick it may be built as a load carrying chimney. It was stopped a long time ago as a fire hazard, but in hung around into the 1950s in a few places. A rotary hammer is big, heavy, and complete overkill for dismantling a brick chimney. It is more suitable for concrete work then a small demo job in an attic. I would not think twice about spreading a tarp and tossing the bricks down from the roof to the yard if enough room is available. If the ground is hard spread som e sand to stop them from bouncing and when you are done just spread the sand out further to get rid of it.

Wow...it's great to see what everyone is doing/has done. Moonkat--you are my hero. I LOVE what you did!! I got rid of my chimney about 2 years ago and it was one of the best decisions I've made in regards to the house. I have a small kitchen (maybe 10 x 10?) and the fridge was basically in the middle of it. Getting rid of the chimney meant we could build a "built in" cubby for the fridge and open the space in the rest of the kitchen. I've posted some photo links below.) I agree with what most posters have said--esp regarding an engineer. We could also see from the attic that there was space all the way around so it wasn't holding anything. We had 2 people look at it just to triple check. In terms of the process, it wasn't *nearly* as hard as ripping out my awful, awful kitchen tiles. :-( They were 18 x 18 and it took about 16 hours to get them all up. It was back breaking and mess and with none of the thrill of the chimney demo because they wouldn't "pop" up the way the bricks would "pop" off. :-) (The key to that, if nobody has said it, is to place the chisel right at the mortar seam where it meets the brick. It worked 90% of the time. We used both electric and human powered tools and it moved amazingly quickly.) Other thoughts... The worst parts were (1) patching the roof---this job isn't bad **but** we were working in summer. It gave us a new esteem for roofers--it must have been 120 degrees up there. So, I'd say work in a season when it's cool, if you can. In a cooler season, this would have been easy. (2) Dust. We put down drop cloths but not enough and although we hung plastic "drapes" dust really got everywhere. Keep in mind that we'd have to open the "drapes" every time we wheeled a new load of bricks outside so the dust in the air could float. An old theater trick--have a spray bottle handy and spray the air. The dust settles. And, maybe some kind of hepa filter. Keep the air-con *off* so the dust doesn't get into the system. You might even cover vents. Put a fan in any windows facing out so the dust gets sucked out. Oh yea...buy the best air mask you can! Next time I would probably *move* the furniture into other rooms. All in all this wasn't that bad. The plaster was heavy as heck and poured into the wire so that was worse than the bricks themselves. That part I rather liked (but I'm weird.) At the time, I didn't have a shopvac. I can see where that would be useful. For anyone interested, here are some photos. Sorry I can't get live links but you can cut and paste. Some of the photos on this page are obviously staged, but if you scroll through, you can see the heavy plaster, chicken wire stuff, etc...as we go along. Sorry that I can't seem to aggregate them. -->Old chimney behind the pot rack: http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/?action=view&current=IMG_1664.jpg CHIMNEY GOING DOWN: http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/IMG_3095.jpg http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/IMG_3098.jpg GONE: http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/?action=view&current=IMG_3100.jpg http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/?action=view&current=IMG_3099.jpg (It was very tempting to keep the space open.) NEW FRIDGE CUBBY: http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/?action=view&current=IMG_3120.jpg http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/andi956/IMG_3132.jpg In the 2 years since I posted, the kitchen has had yet more remodeling. If you look at the album in general, you can see a side door, etc. I walled that up, put in cabs, moved the stove, cut a pass through into another wall, gutted the tile, added a dishwasher, added crown moulding, etc. (Well, *I* didn't do all that...I needed help...much better at *destruction* than construction.) Lastly, here's where we talked about it in 2006. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/remodel/msg071448024576.html Good luck!! Andi

HVAC is normally not impacted because of a bathroom conversion. You are heating and cooling rough-fully same amount of sq ft. Even if you add a single window I doubt your result will see any changes. The issue relates to the fact 5' diameter duct-work delivers 50 cfm (Either metal or flexy). Number 4 - delivers 30 cfms, and #6 - 75 flex, 85 metal. Even if you can switch down from 5' to 4' all it saves you is 20CFMs. As far as equipment the difference between 2.5T and 3T condenser or HP is about 200 CFMs (1000 vs 1200). So even if entire room will not be cooled / heated you will not drop 0.5T (0.5 the size) and let;s be honest 0.5T does not make any difference. >If you add a bathroom you will be charged $20k more ... if you deduct a bathroom you will be credited $5k! Very true

You need to determine if its just a framed chase with a metal chimney inside (which is how many newer fireplaces are made), or a traditional masonry fireplace that goes all the way to the roof. Demolishing a framed chase and metal chiminey is relatively straightforward demo work, except that you need a crew that is willing to work at 2nd story and roof level. Then you need an equivalent reno crew that can fill in the framing and close up the roof, walls and floor. Demolishing a two story brick chimney and fireplace is a lot more labor and transporting the materials will cost a lot more. It would not be unusual to have 6 tons of brick to get rid of. Brick chimneys on exterior walls are also entertwined with the house framing, so that can also get complicated. Bruce