Using unused chimney as a vent?

[mattylad]

Hi, in one of the 1st floot rear bedrooms that the 19yr old lad is in, we get a lot of condensation on the outside wall etc. (methinks his PC is causing this.)

We are about to have the room replastered, and in this I'll be removing an ancient fireplace & boxing it in however, as well as a vent being placed in the UPVC window - I'm wonderin if it's a good or bad idea to also add a vent into the chimney so that there are 2 points of ventilation?

Or could this be a bad idea due to the potential of fumes to come back down when the front downstairs fire is used?

 

[Bilabong007]

He is 19. IMO it's what he's watching on the PC that is causing this.

Dunno about the question though

 

[conny]

If you cap the outlet from that room with say a paving slab, knock a hole in the centre and fit a cowl over the hole there should be no problem with fumes returning down the unused chimney.

 

[mattylad]

The last time I was up there sorting out a wasps nest in the working side of the chimney, the cowl was onto a separate downspout which has a wall between the front & back sections and a cowl.

I suppose that I can always put the fire on, bung a carbon monoxide alarm into the rear fireplace & see what happens.

Cheers.

 

[ree]

Install a vent in the fire blocking and have an air vent terminal in the pot (or flaunching) on the stack - this will give the thro ventilation necessary for a flue.

But have the flue swept before blocking it up. Also have it smoke tested.

Heat rises - fumes wont come back down from a stack terminal opening.

What do you mean by a downspout?

Condensation is common in bedrooms - typically, heat and ventilation are the enemies of condensation.
There's massive info on here ref condensation.

 

[mattylad]

I meant the hole at the top of the chimney, it's separated into multiple sections per room.
The house is an old back to back so would likely have been completely separate anyway.

It has also been suggested that a vent in the door might be the way to go, esp as the one in the wall will be next to his bed so he will likely close it & never open it again.

Cheers all - I'll investigate futher before I do owt.

 

[ree]

Vents in doors are bad practice and could be intrusions on privacy.

The "multiple sections" are the individual flues from each fire place.

A vent in a chimney breast doesn't have to be a Hit & Miss vent. a fixed vent can be installed.

 

[mattylad]

Hit & miss?

Anyway, things have moved on a bit when I started to strip it back so it can be boarded over this afternoon.

It went from:
View media item 95749View media item 95748That was behind some asbestos type sheet to:

View media item 95750As we are now going to use the space that was in there for some shelves after boxing it in, so I'll put a vent in the top where he wont just shut it off as it will be out of reach & sight & line it all with plasterboard so when the room gets plastered this will be done too.

I'm just an ickle concerned about the mantle, I think I need to redo the cement on the left as it's all crumbly but we are leaving it in as a shelf but will be stripped & oiled or something.
1/2 of the width (front to back) is still in the wall, supporting whats above, just the horrible yellow stone facias have been removed.

 

[ree]

What you have done is a disgrace - you've destroyed an original stone fire surround, and removed (hopefully in one piece) the original bedroom cast iron fire place. With the mantle they formed a unique, and getting rarer, feature of all our pasts.

Destroy your past and you will eliminate your children's future.
Such crude ignorance probably not even knowing what it was doing - like the Vandals.

 

[mattylad]

No, what I have done is repurposed an obsolete and never going to be reused chimney area.

Yes the surround was stone, but not very good as it's covered in multiple decades worth of paint, the fireplace itself would not be used ever- it;s a bedroom.
Yes the iron work was removed carefully and will be recycled in some way - however had this not been done then the fireplace would have remained boxed in.

There was no ignorance, the whole thing was ugly (mediocre at best) and beyond reuse - it would not have looked good had it been cleaned up.
Had it been a visually good looking surround and 100% complete then keeping it may have been considered but as it wasnt then it didnt.

I know all about keeping original features - but not all of them need keeping ta!

 

[mattylad]

FWIW this is how it looks now.

Still need to sort the floor area out.