Job takeoff
Chimney breast removal takeoff
Take a chimney breast out of one room with the stack above left standing: soot and dust sealed in, the props and the support under what stays listed and never sized, the flue capped and vented, the wall, ceiling and floor where the breast stood made good, the room redecorated, and the rubble.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 11Measurements in
- 98Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Calculators behind the other choices:
Calculators behind the other choices:
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the chimney breast removal quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Dust sheets and tape in the roomMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the room's whole floor, and tape along its edges and round its doors and windows, which is also what seals the doors against soot. The sheets stay down until the plastering is finished; the route out through the house is listed as work.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 3 items | |
Scaffold face up the elevationScaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face of scaffold along the elevation below the stack, at the run and height you gave: the access for capping and venting the pots. A platform round the stack on the roof slope itself is the scaffolder's own item on top of this face.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator | 322 ft² of face | |
Plasterboard (drywall) on the wallCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorBoard over the wall where the breast stood and the band each side, floor to ceiling, fixed on dabs of adhesive or on battens (furring strips). It is counted on the ceiling sheet page, which takes any area, at its opening sheet and cutting allowance.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator | 2 sheets | |
Plasterboard (drywall) for the hole in the ceilingCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorBoard for the hole the breast came through and a band round its three open sides, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance. Where the support is a steel beam at the ceiling, the fire-rated board round it belongs to the fire protection item, not this row.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator | 1 sheet | |
Joint compound (mud) for the wall and ceiling boardDrywall Joint Compound CalculatorCompound for bedding the tape and the fill and finish coats over the new board on the wall and the ceiling together, from the calculator's coverage for a three-coat finish with its pan and sanding allowance: whole boxes with imperial showing, the weight of ready-mixed compound with metric. Feathering each coat out onto the old wall and ceiling takes a little more than the board's own area.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The pan and sanding loss: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Drywall Joint Compound Calculator | 1 x 4.5 gal box | |
Joint tape for the wall and ceiling boardDrywall Joint Tape CalculatorTape for the joints in the new board, at the calculator's rate for its opening 8 ft (2.4 m) boards, and for every edge where the new board meets the old wall and ceiling, entered as its angles: both sides of the wall patch, the angle across its top and the ceiling patch's three open sides. The rate is for a field of boards, so on a patch this small the flat-joint part reads a little high; the edges are the length that counts.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Drywall Joint Tape Calculator | 60.76 ft | |
Wall paint for the roomPaint CalculatorThe room's four walls in two coats, the breast now gone, less the doors and windows at the calculator's opening sizes: repainting the whole room keeps the patch from showing. A thinned mist coat goes on the new plaster first, listed as work.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 1.82 gal | |
Ceiling paint for the roomCeiling Paint CalculatorThe whole ceiling, so the patch does not show as a square.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 0.78 gal | |
Skip (dumpster) for the rubbleSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe breast taken as solid brick, its width by its depth by the room height, and the hearth slab at 125 mm (5 in) thick, bulked by half again as they break up, the swell the demolition page gives brick masonry, as rubble. The flues inside the breast make the real load lighter; the soot, the surround and the hearth tiles add to it.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 2.21 yd³ | |
Dust sheets and tape in the roomMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the room's whole floor, and tape along its edges and round its doors and windows, which is also what seals the doors against soot. The sheets stay down until the plastering is finished; the route out through the house is listed as work.
Why this quantity? | 3 items | |
Scaffold face up the elevationScaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face of scaffold along the elevation below the stack, at the run and height you gave: the access for capping and venting the pots. A platform round the stack on the roof slope itself is the scaffolder's own item on top of this face.
Why this quantity? | 29.4 m² of face | |
Backing and finish coat on the wallFloat and Set Plaster CalculatorA backing coat and a finish coat over the wall where the breast stood and the band cut back each side, floor to ceiling, at the calculator's opening thicknesses and allowance; the working gives each coat's bags. Brick behind a breast is often rough, so the backing coat can run thicker than the page's opening figure.
Why this quantity? | 58.87 kg | |
Plasterboard (drywall) for the hole in the ceilingCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorBoard for the hole the breast came through and a band round its three open sides, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance. Where the support is a steel beam at the ceiling, the fire-rated board round it belongs to the fire protection item, not this row.
Why this quantity? | 1 sheet | |
Skim coat on the boarded ceilingSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the boarded patch, at the calculator's opening thickness and allowance.
Why this quantity? | 3.36 kg | |
Wall paint for the roomPaint CalculatorThe room's four walls in two coats, the breast now gone, less the doors and windows at the calculator's opening sizes: repainting the whole room keeps the patch from showing. A thinned mist coat goes on the new plaster first, listed as work.
Why this quantity? | 6.63 L | |
Ceiling paint for the roomCeiling Paint CalculatorThe whole ceiling, so the patch does not show as a square.
Why this quantity? | 2.88 L | |
Skip (dumpster) for the rubbleSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe breast taken as solid brick, its width by its depth by the room height, and the hearth slab at 125 mm (5 in) thick, bulked by half again as they break up, the swell the demolition page gives brick masonry, as rubble. The flues inside the breast make the real load lighter; the soot, the surround and the hearth tiles add to it.
Why this quantity? | 1.61 m³ |
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets and tape in the room0.6 h (0.3–1.2)
- Plasterboard (drywall) on the wall0.6 h (0.4–1.2)
- Plasterboard (drywall) for the hole in the ceiling0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Joint compound (mud) for the wall and ceiling board0.9 h (0.5–1.8)
- Wall paint for the room6.1 h (3.4–14)
- Ceiling paint for the room2.6 h (1.4–5.8)
- Skip (dumpster) for the rubble1.7 h (0.8–5.1)
About 13 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 7.0 and 29.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Drywaller1 drywaller + 1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Taper1 taper + 1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painter1 day
About 1½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
2 rows carry no hours of their own
- Scaffold face up the elevation: Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
- Joint tape for the wall and ceiling board: counted with Joint compound (mud) for the wall and ceiling board
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets and tape in the room0.6 h (0.3–1.2)
- Backing and finish coat on the wall0.7 h (0.4–1.5)
- Plasterboard (drywall) for the hole in the ceiling0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Skim coat on the boarded ceiling0.2 h (0.1–0.4)
- Wall paint for the room6.0 h (3.3–13)
- Ceiling paint for the room2.6 h (1.4–5.8)
- Skip (dumpster) for the rubble1.6 h (0.8–4.8)
About 12 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 6.6 and 28.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plastererunder a quarter of a day
- Drywaller1 drywaller + 1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painter1 day
About 1½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
1 row carries no hours of its own
- Scaffold face up the elevation: Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
A chimney breast is the part of a chimney that stands out into the room, with the fireplace and hearth at its foot and one or more flues rising inside it. Taking it out of one room does not take the chimney away. The breast in the room above, where there is one, and the stack through the roof stay where they are, and their weight, which the breast carried down to its own footing, has to go somewhere else. Where it goes is a structural engineer's design: steel gallows brackets bolted to the wall, or a beam or lintel (a header, in North America) bearing on padstones, set while props hold the masonry above. This page lists the props, that support and its padstones as items and gives none of them a size; where the support is a steel beam, its fire protection is an item too.
Soot is what sets this apart from any other demolition inside a house. It lies in the flue and behind the fireplace, it travels further than brick dust and it stains what it settles on, so the room is sealed at its doors, its floor sheeted wall to wall and the route out to the skip (dumpster) covered before the first brick comes out. An old flue can also hold a liner or pipes containing asbestos, and a gas fire, a back boiler, or cables and a radiator on the breast have to be disconnected first. The breast is broken out from the top down, so no masonry is left overhanging, and bagged as it comes.
What is measured is the gap. On the wall, the breast's footprint up to the ceiling and a band each side where the old plaster is cut back to sound are either plastered in two coats or boarded and skimmed; on the ceiling, the hole the breast came through and a band round it are boarded and skimmed; on the floor, the footprint and the old hearth in front of it are made up level with the floor either side, so one floor finish can run across. The rubble is the breast's own volume, taken as solid brick, with the hearth slab, bulked by half once broken. The units pick how the gap is made good. With metric showing, the wall is plastered in two coats and the ceiling boarded and skimmed, the British way; with imperial showing, wall and ceiling are drywall (plasterboard) taped and finished with joint compound, the North American way, with the tape run along every edge where the new board meets the old. The other, and board skimmed on the wall as well, are each one choice away. The skirting (baseboard) across the gap is listed as work: it is about the breast's width, matched to the old.
The flue that stays still needs looking after, though nothing will burn in it again. Each pot is capped with a ventilated cowl (a chimney cap), so rain stays out and air keeps moving up the flue, and a vent is left wherever the flue is closed off indoors, so damp in a sealed flue has somewhere to go. Capping the pots is work at the top of the roof, which is why there is a scaffold row. Breasts on two floors are this page twice, once for each room, with the support named once, at the top of the upper breast, and the scaffold and the capping once: enter 0 for the scaffold run on the second room. Taking the stack down through the roof as well is a different job, which the exclusions name.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Have the engineer design the support for what stays above, agree it with building control and, on a party wall, with the neighbour, and have any old flue liner or fire surround checked for asbestos before anything is disturbed.
- Cap the gas to any fire and isolate the circuits and any radiator on the breast; take off the surround, the fire and the hearth tiles; seal the room's doors and sheet its floor and the route out.
- Set the props under the masonry that stays, fix the brackets or bed the beam on its padstones and pack it tight, and have building control see it before it is covered.
- Break the breast out from the top down to the floor, bagging the soot and rubble as it comes, and cut the wall behind back to a straight face.
- Make up the floor across the old hearth and the footprint, board the hole in the ceiling, and plaster or board the wall, then skim the board or tape and finish its joints; case or coat a steel beam to the fire protection agreed.
- Cap and vent the pots from the scaffold, and fit a vent wherever the flue is closed off indoors.
- Let the plaster or the joint compound dry and seal it with a mist coat or primer, then paint the room and fit the skirting (baseboard) across where the breast stood; rehang any radiator, refit any sockets that were on the breast, and have the altered circuits tested.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The support's design: whether brackets are acceptable or a beam or lintel (header) over the breast's opening is needed, its size, its bearings and padstones, its fixings and the props. Each is an item with no quantity; the structural engineer sets them, and the page sizes none of them.
- The stack above the roof, removed or rebuilt, and the neighbour's half where a stack is shared, with the notice or agreement that cutting into a party wall brings in England and Wales under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
- A back boiler or gas fire's replacement. Disconnecting them is listed as work; a new heat source elsewhere in the house is its own job.
- The floor finish over the made-up floor. The floor is made up level so one finish can run across; a new carpet or floor for the room is its own job.
- Removing an asbestos flue liner, flue pipe or fire panel that the survey finds, which is specialist or licensed work outside this page's rows.
- The breast in the room above. This page is one room; a second breast is this page run again for that room, with the support counted once, and the scaffold and the capping once: enter 0 for the scaffold run on the second room.
- Moving cables, sockets and pipes off the breast beyond disconnecting them and reconnecting them nearby, which is listed as work and not measured.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the chimney breast removal quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
More takeoffs
Other job takeoffs
Concrete slab
3 tradesConcrete, reinforcement and formwork for a ground slab from one set of dimensions.
Run this takeoffTimber deck
4 tradesBoards, footings, fixings and finish for a rectangular deck.
Run this takeoffSegmental retaining wall
4 tradesBlocks, levelling pad, drainage stone and reinforcement layers for a block retaining wall.
Run this takeoff
Frequently asked questions
- What does the chimney breast removal takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Breast width 1.2 m · How far the breast stands out 0.35 m · Hearth in front of the breast 0.45 m · Floor to ceiling 2.4 m · Band made good round the breast 0.3 m · Room length 4 m · Room width 3.6 m · Doors in the room 1 · Windows in the room 1 · Scaffold run under the stack 4.2 m · Height to the working platform 7 m, it orders: Dust sheets and tape in the room, 3 items; Scaffold face up the elevation, 29.4 m² of face; Backing and finish coat on the wall, 58.9 kg; Plasterboard (drywall) for the hole in the ceiling, 1 sheet; Skim coat on the boarded ceiling, 3.36 kg; Wall paint for the room, 6.63 L; Ceiling paint for the room, 2.88 L; Skip (dumpster) for the rubble, 1.61 m³. Opened at Breast width 4 ft · How far the breast stands out 14 in · Hearth in front of the breast 18 in · Floor to ceiling 8 ft · Band made good round the breast 11.8 in · Room length 13 ft · Room width 12 ft · Doors in the room 1 · Windows in the room 1 · Scaffold run under the stack 14 ft · Height to the working platform 23 ft: Dust sheets and tape in the room, 3 items; Scaffold face up the elevation, 322 ft² of face; Plasterboard (drywall) on the wall, 2 sheets; Plasterboard (drywall) for the hole in the ceiling, 1 sheet; Joint compound (mud) for the wall and ceiling board, 1 x 4.5 gal box; Joint tape for the wall and ceiling board, 60.8 ft; Wall paint for the room, 1.82 gal; Ceiling paint for the room, 0.78 gal; Skip (dumpster) for the rubble, 2.21 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the chimney breast removal takeoff run?
- 8 calculators, for 9 lines: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator, Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator, Drywall Joint Compound Calculator, Drywall Joint Tape Calculator, Paint Calculator, Ceiling Paint Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.8 calculators, one to a line: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator, Float and Set Plaster Calculator, Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator, Skim Coat Plaster Calculator, Paint Calculator, Ceiling Paint Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the chimney breast removal takeoff leave out?
- 7 things, each named on this page: The support's design; The stack above the roof, removed or rebuilt, and the neighbour's half where a stack is shared, with the notice or agreement that cutting into a party wall brings in England and Wales under the Party Wall etc; A back boiler or gas fire's replacement; The floor finish over the made-up floor; Removing an asbestos flue liner, flue pipe or fire panel that the survey finds, which is specialist or licensed work outside this page's rows; The breast in the room above; Moving cables, sockets and pipes off the breast beyond disconnecting them and reconnecting them nearby, which is listed as work and not measured.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The chimney breast removal quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.