Ventilating disused chimney

[larry]

Hello - I have a disused chimney which has three disused flues.

I'm having roofing works done and scaffolding is up, so keen to try to sort out as much as I can whilst the scaffolding is there.

Presently, the three flues are covered by what looks like a cemented on tile. So, protection from rain and pigeons but no ventilation. There is no pot for either of the flues.

The flues do have a 20-25mm ventilation hole through to the loft space (i.e. somebody's drilled a hole through the brickwork/mortar through to the flue, so there is some ventilation, and no signs of damp or any other issues.

I'd hoped to add a some sort of ventilated cap to the top whilst we had the scaffolding up but hadn't appreciated this would be quite a big job involving a new pot, liners??, and indeed more scaffolding.

Can I please ask for collective wisdom:
a. does this sound about right?
b. given we've not got any issues, is this a waste of time anyway
c. are there any creative solutions to more easily getting ventilation without lots of extra ££

Thanks all

 

[stuart45]

As you have no issues, then doing nothing could well be OK.
If you have no pots, you can stick an air brick in each flue near the top of you want to vent them. It's not ideal to vent into the loft, as if you have a hit and miss open at the bottom you could be taking warm, damp air up there to condense. However, if the loft is well vented it probably won't cause issues.