How Large Brick Chimneys Are Removed

Get a Scaffold

• You dismantle brick chimneys from the top down, so you will need to borrow or rent a scaffold tall enough to allow you to reach the top of the chimney. The scaffold must have a sturdy floor, safety rails and a secure attachment to the building. Chimney demolition is a two-person job. One uses the hammer and chisel to loosen the bricks. The other stacks the bricks for later removal and runs errands for the person who is breaking up the chimney. Before starting the demolition, close off your fireplace opening and close off the room with the fireplace to keep dust and dirt out of the rest of your house.

Cold Chisel

• You dismantle a chimney brick by brick. Pulling down a chimney with a winch or other machine is extremely dangerous and shouldn’t be attempted by do-it-yourselfers. Wear heavy work clothes, gloves, safety goggles and safety shoes. Secure yourself to the scaffold with tie lines to hold you if you should slip. Use a heavy hammer and cold chisel to strike the mortar and loosen the bricks. Alternatively, you can rent an electric tool known as a demolition hammer. Work one brick at a time. Don’t throw the bricks off the scaffold. They are dangerous missiles. Instead, stack them on the scaffold deck until you get a pile.

Bucket Brigade

• Transfer the brick pile into a 5-gallon bucket on a rope and lower the bucket to the ground. Stack the bricks neatly where you can get to them for use in landscaping projects. Take the bricks down from the fire box as well. If working on a large chimney serving a multi-story house, stack the bricks on each floor as you work your way down and remove them later.

Big Hole

• Once the chimney and fireplace are gone, you will have to patch the roof and roof framing and finish the soffits and eaves. You’ll also have to patch in the exterior siding over the space where the chimney stood. When you get to the gaping hole where the fireplace was, you may have to repair your floor framing and maybe the foundation as well, depending on how your fireplace was laid in.