Chimney Works

[Feltwell]

Hi Doug

Do you know something about lead then?

All very valid comments!

The sloping shoulders were indeed a consideration for lead. Decided not to in the end for 4 reasons:-

- We found a definite leak, complete with water visibly running inside, in the crown of that chimney - now fixed

- Pointing on the shoulders was dreadful - new pointing should be much better at keeping the water out. Bricks are very hard and smooth and relatively impervious.

- It's not too bad to get up there again - could probably add leadwork to the shoulders off a scaffold tower (which I have)

- Availability of Quinn (the leadworker I use for everyone else's benefit) - he's a great bloke and the quality of his work is A1, but he's hard to pin down to a date. I've been waiting about 4 months for him to do my porch roof as it is! He has a plumbing contract on a hospital that just seems to be lasting forever and taking up all his time. In the meantime, the scaffold needed to come down.

Interestingly, another identical house to mine on the other side of my town has roofing tiles on those slopes, so someone else has had the same thoughts.

Lead damp course on the latest chimney - I agree, just not going to get time to get Quinn in to do it and haven't the skill to do it myself. There's not so much of a damp problem with that chimney - just a little stain on the corner of the ceiling below that only appears after very wet weather - and that's with a whacking great hole in the flaunching, straight into the flue, directly above.

What you're saying is very valid but it is "belt and braces", I'm hoping that belt or braces will do the job in this case. Not like me, usually belt and braces is how I like to do things....and I would in this case to be honest, it's just the practicalities of getting it done.

If I'm moaning on here in a year or two that I've redecorated and the damp has come through again, you have my full permission to say "I told you so!"

[DJH]

As if I would...

[Feltwell]

There's nothing like quality workmanship from years gone by to contend with.

Just finished getting all the old flaunching and 8 chimney pots off, intact as well, bit nerve wracking as a couple of the neighbour's ones were cracked to begin with - plus loose, and very large & heavy, edge stones to not knock off.

Whoever lined 2 of their flues for their woodburners, "repaired" the original (knackered) lime flaunching with squirty foam before putting an inch of sand and cement over the top to hide it all.

That was about 3 years ago, all cracked and horrible by now of course. Still, made getting it off easier I suppose.

Good news is now all the tops of the flues are exposed, one end in particular is all damp & horrible , so happy now that that was where the water was getting in.

[DJH]

IMG-20190729-WA0001.jpg (184.13 KiB) Viewed 903 times

One of the lanterns for an octagonal tower on a castle I've been working on for the last two years and ten months...nothing to do with chimneys I know but there...

I should add that the leadwork under the merlons was fitted by the masons We'll try to tidy it up when we fit the top of wall code 6 lead weatherings.

[Feltwell]

Very nice as always Doug!

[DJH]

Thanks...sorry to hijack your topic. If I wasn't so busy I could maybe have done your porch... I very rarely, if at all come back to the UK nowadays...

Another picture from the same job...no more I promise...

IMG-20190729-WA0003.jpg (79.42 KiB) Viewed 877 times

[Feltwell]

You've every right to be proud of the job Doug, lovely bit of workmanship. Alas I don't see many young leadworkers coming along to inherit the skills, though you'd have a much more authoritative view on that than I have.

Chimney news - for all of you that are on the edge of your seats and struggling to sleep - had a HETAS engineer out today, between us we smoke tested the one flue that I want to reinstate an open fire too, good news is that it's sound and no need to line it - so that's about £1k saved (liners for use with coal are more expensive than for woodburners apparently - and it's a *very* tall house). Makes a change for this house to be costing me less than I fear!

Main reason for getting him out was to get a price to put a liner in now in another flue from another chimney whilst I have scaffolding up, in anticipation of a future installation of a small stove. The scaffolding costs more than the flue liner - so it's a case of put it in now and connect up to it at some point in the future.

[Flyfisher]

Fantastic lead work Doug!

I propose you start a separate topic where you can post your current (indeed, past) projects. They really are works of art.

Any seconders?

[Me!]

Any seconders?

Yes, definitely seconded by me.

[Mickey]

and me!

[LeeL82]

Fantastic lead work Doug!

I propose you start a separate topic where you can post your current (indeed, past) projects. They really are works of art.

Any seconders?

a third'r here

[Feltwell]

Great idea! More entertaining than some bloke wittering on about chimneys as well

[DJH]

Ahh c'mon now lads. who wants to see endless boring pictures of rainwater heads and pipes and things...

I actually have some quite strong views about chimneys (staying on topic) and I think the problems that can arise with them if not properly built are or can be a nightmare. In most houses, apart from towers like Feltwell has. chimneys are the only structural things that penetrate what is an otherwise watertight roof. The exceptions I suppose are vent pipes and fabricated flues and vents.

In almost all cases the rush is on to complete the chimneys and drop the scaffold. Of late it seems to be the roofers who throw a bit of lead flashing around them so as their progress isn't held up..

Properly fitted dampcourses are an absolute must and, if they can be fitted retrospectively even at additional cost I think they should be fitted. It's often thought that chimneys will not allow moisture to penetrate...wrong! Its well known and I can vouch for the fact that weather is magnified on a roof. A shower of rain might not need an umbrella at ground level but it often does in swirling winds on the roof. Rain will penetrate the structure through both the top where the pots penetrate and the sides, rendered or not.

I'm often told where ingress of rain or damp is eviden it's the flashing that are faulty. Not always the case of course as the job of flashing is to prevent water penetrating the abutment of a roof with another structure, eg chimneys and walls and will not prevent ingress of moisture through the above structure unless cavity trays or damp courses are fitted immediately above them.

To sum up every chimney needs a DPC.
These are my rather trenchant views but there...

[Feltwell]

In times of yore they would have had lots of nice hot flue gases going up them in the colder & wetter months, which must have helped. Nowadays most flues are redundant and those that are in use are often lined, which must cut the drying effectiveness down.

Retrofitting a DPC sounds like an absolute pig of a job though - either take the chimney down & rebuild it, or try to cut one in in-situ - and where would it go? Don't fancy either of those options until all other options are exhausted!

[DJH]

Yore ( ) right of course Feltwell. That would certainly have helped alleviate the problem plus there would have been more ventilation and updraft back then. Retrospective fitting would be part of a major rebuild, something few of us could afford and I suppose, Conservation Officers might not like the idea along with the disruption of historic fabric.

I'm not sure but I believe current Building Regulations in the UK stipulate a dpc for chimneys. Alas, not here in Ireland. The lad who rebuilt my chimney here is still shaking his head in amazement at the waste of lead for something he still thinks isn't needed. Never seen the like he said...