Help with chimney Brest walls. (Ventilation)

[RobHolyhead]

Hi all,

I find myself in an awkward position, my in laws are having some refurbishment done in their house, they have removed 2 old gas fires from both chimney Brest's in their house and blocked the holes up leaving no ventilation what so ever, on my way in to their house today i noticed they have an open top chimney flue.

I have told my father in law that he needs to either cap the chimney off or place vents in the bottom of both the Brest's (or both for the best), but hes kind of stubborn and dismissed the idea straight away. Im pretty sure im right but im not going to argue with him about it.

I only suggested it because unfortunately we did the same and learned the hard way and currently have saturated Brest walls, the only thing keeping the plaster up is the wall paper!

I'm hoping if theres a professional on here you could give me something to convince him otherwise as hes recently retired and wont be able to afford to repair the damage I'm pretty damn sure it will cause in the future.

Any advice would be great either a post in reply or a letter you could e-mail me?

Thanks

Rob

 

[Richard C]

I have told my father in law that he needs to either cap the chimney off or place vents in the bottom of both the Brest's (or both for the best), but hes kind of stubborn and dismissed the idea straight away.

Unfortunately it’s not even one or the other, he needs to do both but it must be a vented cap. Fitting a cap will prevent water ingress from above due to rain but providing ventilation at the bottom of the flue is very important to prevent condensation of convected warmer air rising inside the flue; condensation formed as a result can be very corrosive due to the acid nature of deposits inside the flue.

Im pretty sure im right but im not going to argue with him about it.

He sounds like a real nightmare; if you’ve had problems & are trying to advise him why does he not take your word for it Show him this, perhaps he'll take mine ---- or maybe not

 

[RobHolyhead]

Ill try again next time we see him, if he still wont listen ill get him to take some wall paper off our chimney Brest then give him a stern look when he gets covered in damp plaster, then ill tell him thats what happens in this particular situation!

The only reason we are ok with it is because were planning to remove the chimney Brest after Christmas so its no real biggie for us.

 

[Richard C]

were planning to remove the chimney Brest after Christmas so its no real biggie for us.

Well that sort of changes things rather dramatically . Its extremely unlikely an unvented & uncapped flue would cause any real problems over such a short time period so perhaps your FIL was right to dismiss you concerns. A cap on the flue would help prevent water ingress from above but I don’t see that as a problem over such a short time period, even more so if you’re ripping it all out! Forget what I said about condensation but make sure you “do it right” when removing the chimney/flue.

 

[RobHolyhead]

were planning to remove the chimney Brest after Christmas so its no real biggie for us.

Well that sort of changes things rather dramatically . Its extremely unlikely an unvented & uncapped flue would cause any real problems over such a short time period so perhaps your FIL was right to dismiss you concerns. A cap on the flue would help prevent water ingress from above but I don’t see that as a problem over such a short time period, even more so if you’re ripping it all out! Forget what I said about condensation but make sure you “do it right” when removing the chimney/flue.

I think you got the wrong end of the stick there I meant we are not bothered about the damp on the Brest in my house as we are removing it.

Not removing the Brest in my Father In Laws house. Its taken about 4 years for our damp to get as bad as it is. I would imagine in 4 years time unless he ventilates his Chimney Brest's he will have damp in his house on a smiler scale to what I have now, only he will have to fix is as they cannot remove their chimney Brest's.