I have a bungalow which has a chimney that has not been used for nearly 10 years. It is completely closed off at the bottom(kitchin) and has had a capped vent at the top. Recently the render at the very top of the chimney has come away(this could be partly due to an arial strap having been removed earlier).
On the other hand it could be due to damp???
I decided that if I am to re-render the top of the chimney, that maybe I should put a vent in at the bottom(much preferably outside). This idea does not appear to be as simple as I first had hoped. Our bungalow has two chimneys joined together. The Kitchin and lounge chimneys are on the same outside wall, but the base's are several yards apart and they come together at the top to form a sort of Triangle. I dont actually know where the base of the kitchin's chimney is + the bungalow has purbeck stone at the bottom metre of the outside of the bungalow, which makes it even harder to locate. Other then demolishing the wall, is there some clever way I can use to locate the chimney(obviously the chimney goes up at an angle).
I did try drilling an exploitory hole above the purbeck stone, but it took me into a cavity of nearly a foot across. This I think is acting as the cavity of the outside wall before the chimney.? I removed the capped vent off the top of the chimney, tryed to push a rod down, but it would not go all the way down(it seemed blocked, but will verify this next week). However I noticed that the chimney goes down a ways and then goes inwards away from the wall, before going left to the kitchin(obviously I could only see so far down).
By the way I did notice that the top few brick on the inside of the stack felt a little damp. Due to mosture coming if from the cowling, or??
By the way I really want to avoid putting an air brick on the inside, although even that could be a problem to locate(the opening was bricked up against a flat wall. I would probably have to take the flooeboards up to try and locate the hearth?
My questions are
1) Is there any clever way of locating the chimney outside without taking out loads of bricks (probably not?)
2) If I simply sealed the top off, is that a bad thing to do. Air could not get in or out???
3) To make my life easy I could put an air brick in halfway up just before the chimney bends in from the outside wall. I can locate that easily and at least it would keep the top half of the chimney dry. Would this be good enough?
In fact I could close the chimney off, put an air brick at the top and an air brick halfway up. Would that mean that the bottom would get damp???
4) Whats the difference between a cavity wall (the cavity does not have any air bricks at the bottom??) and a chimney (given that the top has a cowling on it).
What I am trying to say is why does a cavity not need air bricks at the bottom???
Thankyou for reading this.
Phil
On the other hand it could be due to damp???
I decided that if I am to re-render the top of the chimney, that maybe I should put a vent in at the bottom(much preferably outside). This idea does not appear to be as simple as I first had hoped. Our bungalow has two chimneys joined together. The Kitchin and lounge chimneys are on the same outside wall, but the base's are several yards apart and they come together at the top to form a sort of Triangle. I dont actually know where the base of the kitchin's chimney is + the bungalow has purbeck stone at the bottom metre of the outside of the bungalow, which makes it even harder to locate. Other then demolishing the wall, is there some clever way I can use to locate the chimney(obviously the chimney goes up at an angle).
I did try drilling an exploitory hole above the purbeck stone, but it took me into a cavity of nearly a foot across. This I think is acting as the cavity of the outside wall before the chimney.? I removed the capped vent off the top of the chimney, tryed to push a rod down, but it would not go all the way down(it seemed blocked, but will verify this next week). However I noticed that the chimney goes down a ways and then goes inwards away from the wall, before going left to the kitchin(obviously I could only see so far down).
By the way I did notice that the top few brick on the inside of the stack felt a little damp. Due to mosture coming if from the cowling, or??
By the way I really want to avoid putting an air brick on the inside, although even that could be a problem to locate(the opening was bricked up against a flat wall. I would probably have to take the flooeboards up to try and locate the hearth?
My questions are
1) Is there any clever way of locating the chimney outside without taking out loads of bricks (probably not?)
2) If I simply sealed the top off, is that a bad thing to do. Air could not get in or out???
3) To make my life easy I could put an air brick in halfway up just before the chimney bends in from the outside wall. I can locate that easily and at least it would keep the top half of the chimney dry. Would this be good enough?
In fact I could close the chimney off, put an air brick at the top and an air brick halfway up. Would that mean that the bottom would get damp???
4) Whats the difference between a cavity wall (the cavity does not have any air bricks at the bottom??) and a chimney (given that the top has a cowling on it).
What I am trying to say is why does a cavity not need air bricks at the bottom???
Thankyou for reading this.
Phil
