Pulling down a block chimney?

[Piper2022]

Hello,
Hoping to get some thoughts on pulling down a block chimney at our home. Story: older, I think 60’s vintage block chimney that is in very rough shape. Many block have been compromised to the point some have softball sized holes in them. It is beyond salvageable and leaks extensively into the house. Anyways I need to take it down. Talked to a few local masons on the phone, but everyone is just too busy to even get it done before snowfall here. It’s about 20’ from grade to top of it. Upper section is about 30” wide and the bottom angles put to 48” or so due to a fire place inside. As you can see the chimney is completely external to the home other than the fire place. What would be the easiest way to remove this? I have a 12,000lb winch as well as a 40hp tractor. My thoughts are that once the fire place is demolished from the inside out, could this entire thing fall down in one piece? Ideally I would like to weaken the two outside corners of the base, then pull it over, but I hate to be standing near it when I sledge hammer away on the base.

One option I have is I might have a large 25,000lb excavator on site in a month, but the wife will kill me when she sees what that does to her gardens near by

picture here:

IMG_1289.PNG

drive.google.com

 

[fried1765]

Hello,
Hoping to get some thoughts on pulling down a block chimney at our home. Story: older, I think 60’s vintage block chimney that is in very rough shape. Many block have been compromised to the point some have softball sized holes in them. It is beyond salvageable and leaks extensively into the house. Anyways I need to take it down. Talked to a few local masons on the phone, but everyone is just too busy to even get it done before snowfall here. It’s about 20’ from grade to top of it. Upper section is about 30” wide and the bottom angles put to 48” or so due to a fire place inside. As you can see the chimney is completely external to the home other than the fire place. What would be the easiest way to remove this? I have a 12,000lb winch as well as a 40hp tractor. My thoughts are that once the fire place is demolished from the inside out, could this entire thing fall down in one piece? Ideally I would like to weaken the two outside corners of the base, then pull it over, but I hate to be standing near it when I sledge hammer away on the base.

One option I have is I might have a large 25,000lb excavator on site in a month, but the wife will kill me when she sees what that does to her gardens near by

picture here:

IMG_1289.PNG

drive.google.com

If your excavator guy has a thumb, that would likely be the best way to avoid most damage.

 

[dusty3030]

I'd rent a man lift and take it down from the top by hand.

 

[fried1765]

I'd rent a man lift and take it down from the top by hand.

That would be the most labor intensive method, but certainly the least damaging.

 

[dlctcg]

I'd rent a man lift and take it down from the top by hand.

^^^ I'd do the same.. (or staging). Least amount of damage to the house & surrounding ground. With a good demo hammer drill & some chisel bits I would think it would come down ok....

 

[dusty3030]

Yep. Wouldn't have to go all the way down with it by hand, but I'd want to really get a good idea of what I was dealing with before I took it down all at once. Hate to find out it was holding the wall up the hard way.

 

[mrmikey]

Ideally I would like to weaken the two outside corners of the base, then pull it over,...........

As long as you're sure it's not anchored to the house, bet you'll find it is tho..........Mike

 

[Larry Caldwell]

2 lb hammer, cold chisel, and a ladder. It's easy to knock blocks loose and pitch them on the ground. The chimney is probably anchored to the house, so pulling it all over at once is probably not a good idea.

 

[ning]

Ages ago I had a house with a 80 year old brick chimney which was compromised due to the ancient mortar (much which had turned to sand) and cracked by earthquakes.

I rented an electric rotohammer and took it apart chunk by chunk.

In my case, the first part (above the 12:12 roof line - I wore a climbing harness and top-roped with my climbing rope tossed over the house and attached to a tree on the other side of the house) was kinda slow going because that part was in surprisingly good shape and took a bit of effort. Once below the roof line, many bricks I could just lift off one at a time without the tool I was really glad to have done this job!

 

[grsthegreat]

better than tying off to your car bumper...and having the wife run to the store