Fireplace Removed- Can I shiplap it myself?

don't remove it, just cover it with dry wall and shiplap. You might want to remove the fireplace frame and any molding first tho.

I recently had my 1940s fireplace removed as it was beginning to fall away and was warping the outside wall, and caused a small leak in the corner of it. Was a total mess, turns out what I thought was concrete blocks were old cement blocks, had to hire a jackhammer to get them out, and then there was this huge rotted steel box. I had a contractor do this as we had to add and replace studs, subflooring, interior and exterior wall, insulation and trim, repair metal roof, and I put in a fake electric fireplace inside inside with a travertine tiles face. Cost was $8,000 and that was the low bid. The wall it was on is original cedar shiplap, and when we took some of the old stuff off it broke down, so we had to match it and have a custom stain done to match the color.

So the motto of this tale is, no you can't remove a concrete fireplace by yourself. Hire a pro. Get multiple bids, ask friends for who they recommend, and check them out on your local Contractors Licensing Board to make sure they have valid license, insurance and workers comp. Cause the other mason we got a bid from was 3x the price.