Construction question, any knowledge???

[Nek]

I have a living room, which abuts a sunroom, with a fireplace on the wall in between. The sunroon is one story, and there is a room above the living room. The chimney goes outside ontop of the sunroom roof, then through the attic, and then about 15' above the roof line. Now my question... I was thinking about taking down the fireplace, installing a stove with a steel stovepipe, but still keep the existing chimney (from the sunroom roof on up) for aesthetic purposes. Now my question: Once the fireplace is taken down, I would assume the chimeny above would collapse, or be really unstable. Is there anyway to support the chimney above without the fireplace?????

My goal is to make the livingroom/sunroom one room, and take down the fireplace, as it takes up alot of space. I dont really ewant to get involved with a contractor at this point, as I am at preliminary stages of the thought process. Thanks for any advice.

[Perez14]

I'm guessing this is a wood fireplace and not a gas fireplace. The gas fireplace would just need to be pulled out and replaced with whatever you wish, but the wood fireplace is pretty much built into the chimney. So if you were to remove the wood part you would need to find someway to support the chimney before you can do anything. I personally wouldn't do it without talking to a few contractors to see what they think.

[Nek]

It is a wood fireplace. Rightnow I have a wood burning stove insert. That was my question. If there was anyway to support the 'top half' of the chimney without the fireplace.

[pnosko]

Maybe you can run a support cable or two to the nearest stationary satellite.

[Kengar]

I figure you should just go ahead and smash the bugger out of there for fun, then let us know what happened. You don't think we got to this wonderful, modern era of jet travel with folks like the Wright brothers being timid wussies, now do you?