Chimney rebuild

[steveb]

Pics of the story of our chimney on our mid terrace Victorian property. We knew the chimney was ropey (you could put your arm directly into each of the 4 flues in the loft where the mortar had been washed away) so as we were going to strip the cement from the front and re-do in lime we got the scaffold extended and the old chimney taken down.

The builder went up there to start taking it down and relayed the story to me the following day. "Took me bolster and hammer. Didn't need either of em"



He took the whole lot down by hand, just picking the bricks off one by one, ended up taking the chimney down several feet into the loft until he found good stone to work off, re-laid the stone and re-pointed the wall then built a base of small blocks to get a platform to build off.



He then rebuilt the chimney stack using a mix of original bricks on the lower part and re-claims where it steps out (to hide the slight difference in brick colours)



Got to say I am pleased with the end result. One more coat of lime on the flaunching is needed, waiting for a break in the weather.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Looks like a nice job. Better keep his/her number in a safe place.

How are the elephant's foot cowls stuck on, they are usually mortared on I think, otherwise water runs down the side of the cowls and int the chimney.

 

[Cubist]

It's always encouraging to find there are still some decent, in all senses, tradesmen out there.

As PP says, best keep his number in a safe place and maybe share some plaudits for the guy with members of this forum in your area.

 

[steveb]

How are the elephant's foot cowls stuck on, they are usually mortared on I think, otherwise water runs down the side of the cowls and int the chimney.

Apparently he used "all weather sticks like" - mortar eventually cracks but these feet are quite a good fit anyhow so gravity may well have sufficed




And the finished article, barring the leadwork that needs the scaffolding to be out of the way to finish.

 

[Easrow]

We removed an old disused chimney that had long since had the top taken off and tiles over. Must have been unused for 50years plus. It was full the whole height of the downstairs will rubble, dust, sticks, mortar etc. We removed the whole stack that went through the upstairs by hand and even some of the downstairs! The bricks just lifted off. It's amazing how it gets so weak. Your guy has done a nice job rebuilding.