# Planning permission for removal of chimney?



## Billy Baltic (18 Jul 2013)

I am in the process of planning some internal and external changes to my house. One of the proposed changes involves taking out an internal wall which includes removing a chimney from the ground through to roof level. Does this change require planning permission? I have been dealing with an architect on the plans but he is on holiday and a friend pointed out that it may need planning permission as its a change to the roof.

I don't know if this is relevant but it's a detached dormer property on a decent sized site.


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## Docarch (19 Jul 2013)

Billy Baltic said:


> ...a friend pointed out that it may need planning permission as its a change to the roof.


 
Your friend is, at least, not giving you bad advice.  You do not need planning permission to build a chimney...but...there is no specific exemption to take one down.  

If you were living in an urban area you may well need planning permission to take down your chimney (had this same discussion with Dublin City Council only recently). 

As your house is isolated/not part of a streetscape, my opinion would be that it may/could be considered exempt under section 4(I)h of the planning act.

Let your architect make the call...at the end of the day s/he may be signing off on planning/planning exemption.


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## NHG (19 Jul 2013)

A lot of houses now have mock chimneys to keep the appearance of the house correct


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## Billy Baltic (19 Jul 2013)

Thanks for the responses. If planning was required for the chimney removal it would be the only part of the job which would require permission and I don't want to delay eveything weeks or months for that. A mock chimney could be a useful work-around to retain the external appearence while planning was sought.


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## Drakon (31 Jul 2013)

I was at a pre-planning meeting last week.  The planners are objecting to the presence of chimneys.  They say that they look out of place with the shape of the house we're hoping to build.
I lived in a house for six years that had no open fire.  Never again.


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## daithi28 (31 Jul 2013)

Huh 

I've never heard of a Planner that wouldn't allow a chimey in a house! Are you sure they didn't simply have an issue with the design/scale/form of the chimey in relation to the overall building?


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## Drakon (31 Jul 2013)

They're happy enough with the building.  In fact, at the pre-planning they were impressed as they'd never seen a barrel roof dwelling in the area before.  

However, they don't like the two chimneys.  I can see where they are coming from, and if you google-image barrel roof you don't see any chimneys.

The thing is, the chimneys are what is in the Cork Co Co guidelines, ie at the ends of the roof (ie part of the gable), at the very top.  Though obviously, this is for an apex roof.  To put it another way, if you were to replace the barrel roof with a traditional apex roof, these chimneys would be exactly what is in the guideline and is traditional in form.  They seem to have trouble knitting the two.
When I look around the countryside and see these fussy chimneys, offset and sticking right out of the roof tiles, I gotta wonder!

This objection, btw, was at pre-planner level and was notified to us by the architect.  We've a meeting with the latter in 10 days.


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## Buddyboy (31 Jul 2013)

If the barrel roof is metal, would it look better with a metal (stove) chimney?

(This just popped into my head, and may have been considered/discarded already by you).


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## Drakon (1 Aug 2013)

Yeah, thinking of this and will discuss with architect.


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