Category: chimney

Rain down the chimney

September 5, 2013 / stephen

A couple of weekends ago a lot of rain fell on the Saturday during the day. On the Sunday, we noticed that water had dripped into each of the three fireplaces. Not down the internal metal flue, but down the chimney. And into all three fireplaces.

The only place where rain could get in is down the side of the new chimney pots. These were put only a couple of months ago. We took a look at the pots today. The sand and cement around the pots has cracked and is letting in water. There are cracks in the mortar around all three pots.

Guess where the water is coming in?

It is pretty obvious what the problem is!

Roof – finished (yes, this time!)

July 2, 2013 / stephen

And now the roof is all finished. The ridge tiles have been pointed and the roof swept. Once the chimneys have been pointed, the scaffolding will be removed (at least the top boards anyway). This will allow the rest of the house to be pointed.

The front of the main roof of the existing cottages. Two rebuilt chimneys (complete with flues and pots) and two new roof lights.

Rebuilt chimneys and pointed ridge tiles on the back of the roof

Replacing the fireplace mantel

June 30, 2013 / stephen

The chimney breast in number 10 was artexed. I didn’t know why until I removed the artex – there was big crack running through the stone mantel from front to back.

The only real option was to replace it. Luckily the builders managed to locate a similar stone mantel. Holes were knocked into the chimney stack above the stone. The chimney stack was then propped up while the stone was removed and replaced with the salvaged one. It was quite quick and a good job to do while the weather was poor.

Once the sand and cement was set, the props were removed and the holes in the chimney stack were bricked up.

The fireplace mantel in number 10 was cracked and had to be replaced. There is a prop placed remporarily underneath the fireplace to ensure that it doesn’t go anywhere.

The stone mantel came from the Sycamore pub when it was refurbished.

Installing the chimney pots and the flues

June 30, 2013 / stephen

There are three fireplaces in the existing cottages. Two of the fireplaces use the same chimney stack, so there are only two re-built chimney stacks for three fireplaces.

The chimneys were swept first and a significant amount of soot was removed (even though all of the existing fireplaces were gas when we moved in). Next the chimney pot goes on the flagstone that was installed on the top of the chimney – 8 inch holes were cut in the flagstones to accept the flue. Once the sand and cement had set, the flue was pushed down the chimney. There is a metal cowl on the top. This stops water and birds getting into the top of the chimney. They don’t look particularly attractive (they are made of shiny metal), but they were lightly sprayed with black paint.

We could have used a “T” shaped clay pot, but opted for a straight pot with a cowl.

We have opted for straight clay pots rather than the “T” shaped pots

We have installed three 7 inch stainless steel flue in each of the existing fireplaces

Roof – Almost there

June 28, 2013 / stephen

Close of play on Friday and the rear of the roof is complete. It will take another couple of days to complete the front, put the ridge tiles back on and complete the lead work around the chimney.

We have also put flagstones on the top of each of the new chimneys. They have 8 inch holes cut in them for the new flue liners and chimney pots. These are being installed on Saturday morning.

The rear of the roof is now complete.

Progress with the roof and extension

June 27, 2013 / stephen

We are making good progress this week with both the roof and rebuilding the extension.

While the weather has been good, attention has been turned to rebuilding the extension. We can’t progress with the pointing until we have had the go ahead from the architect on the choice of materials. We have completed a test panel for approval using Nosterfield River sand and hydraulic lime, but this needs a little bit of time to dry out so we can see the true colour.

It could a couple of days to completely felt and lathe the roof. However, today work started on relaying the slates. Five courses are on at the rear of the house. Slightly less at the front, due to the rooflights having to be fitted as well. We have had to buy some additional slates to make up for the ones that were damaged or too aged to be reused.

Concrete blockwork on the inside then 100mm insulation and finally the original gritstone on the outside. Once it is finihsed, we will get it sandblasted to match the main property.

This is the view of the front of the roof with the two rooflights. We are waiting for some lead before the slates can be fitted underneath each of the rooflights.

We had to change the size of the rooflights so that they would sit between the purlins underneath. These are conservation windows from a company called Fakro (did you guess?). They are pine on the inside, but will be painted to match the ceiling colour.

Five courses of slates on the back of the roof and the two re-built chimneys. This is day 3 for putting the roof back on.

Roof going back on

June 24, 2013 / stephen

Work started this morning on putting the roof back on the existing building. By the end of the day all of the roofing felt and lathes will be on the building. This is a milestone since from this point onwards the building is no longer completely open to the elements.

It will take 7-10 days to get the roof completely finished, assuming there aren’t any problems.

You can also see the two rebuilt chimneys that now match – before the chimney on the left was smaller, rendered and had no string course. The chimneys, as the rest of the external masonry, has been sandblasted over the last weekend.

The two chimneys have been rebuilt and sandblasted. So too has the rear of the property. The felt and lathes are going on first to be followed by the stone slates.

End of day 1 on the roof and the felt and lathes have been installed. This means that the worst of the weather will be kept out. There is still a chance that rain may come through some of the window openings, but fingers crossed the weather shouldn’t be too bad for the next couple of weeks.

The “felt” is actually a green coloured plastic. It feels a little bit like a tent wit only the felt and lathes on the roof. With the green felt on the roof, there is a green tinge to the light everywhere.

First chimney rebuilt

June 21, 2013 / stephen

Using the stone from the old porch, the first of the chimneys has been rebuilt. It has a string course made from an old flagstone. The intention is that the string course will throw water clear from the base of the chimney. Work is now commencing on rebuilding the second chimney. This will match the first one.

Using the stone from the porch, the chimney between number 10 and number 9 has been rebuilt. An old flagstone was cut to make up the string course.

The first chimney is rebuilt and work is starting on the second one. Andy is putting one of the purlins back in.

Chimney being built

June 19, 2013 / stephen

Both of the chimneys are going to need to be rebuilt before the sandblasters turn up at the weekend. The weather forecast for the next couple of days isn’t great, so the pressure is on to try and get everything done. The scaffolding turned up this afternoon for the chimney and the work on rebuilding it started within the hour.

The first few courses (under the roof slates) are built up in brick and then stone (from the old porch) is used to rebuild the chimney.

The telehandler is used to get bricks and mortar up to roof level. Zep is on patrol waiting for any disgarded Jaffa cakes. But no luck today.

All the windows have to be taken out before the weekend so that the sandblasters can do their work.

Chimneys removed

June 13, 2013 / stephen

There were three chimneys on the property. If you don’t believe me, check out the banner image at the top of this page!

One had not been used for 50 -60 years and we have decided to remove it entirely. The middle chimney had been rendered at some point. The roof timber around this chimney had rotted. so there had obviously been a problem at some point with this one. This has been taken down and will be re-built in stone (as it was originally). The third chimney was built of stone, but was a bit fragile. With men working underneath it, we have taken the decision to take this one down to and rebuild it.

Thus we will go from three chimneys to two, but at leasat they will match.

: There were three chimneys ornginally. One is being completely removed as it is no longer used (far left), the other two are being re-built (the middle and far right).

The stones from the old chimney have been cleaned and stacked on a pallet ready to go back up.