1850 Home

[GerardHart]

We are looking at a three storey five bed, 2 attic rooms, four public home circa 1850. It is in good order, with unfortunately some period features removed, many of which I would want to reinstate.

The current owners have been in the house since 1920 and their family before that. Many years ago they ripped out the original range cooker and flag floor in the kitchen which I would want to replace. But they also dismantled the chimney stacks and sealed the roof over these. They are still in the attic.

Assuming that there are no listed building issues (it's not) and that the stack in the attic is otherwise sound how much do you think it would be to take the chimney back up through the roof and make it good again?

Thanks for your advice - we haven't bought yet

Oh, and its also heated via a boiler fuelled by LPG. Any pointers to the costs would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[arthurw3]

2-3k, but it really depends on the size of the chimney and its complexity.
LPG is relatively expensive and you are usually tied into the owner of the tank for a period, again without knowing how efficient the boiler is and how good the insulation, it is a piece of string job

 

[Penners]

As arthurw3 has hinted at, it's very difficult to give you cost guidelines without any more information.

It would help the building experts on this forum to help you if you could post some information on materials, dimensions, the degree of complexity, etc. Pictures would be good.

I've never used LPG, but it has the reputation of being expensive.

 

[skier-hughes]

We rebuilt a chimney which had been sealed below the roof tiles.
Cost, £400 scaffolding
2 days bricklaying with 2 brickies and a labourer, £600
I day sealing round chimney and relaying tiles £100
Bricks and lime about £150.

It's quite a tall chimney and double size.

 

[AMc]

Oh, and its also heated via a boiler fuelled by LPG. Any pointers to the costs would be helpful.

Your best guide will be past bills if the owner can't supply them then the supply company may be able to but pay attention to volumes not prices. Our fuel oil bill went up by a 1/3rd this year!

 

[shelli]

Oh, and its also heated via a boiler fuelled by LPG. Any pointers to the costs would be helpful.

Your best guide will be past bills if the owner can't supply them then the supply company may be able to but pay attention to volumes not prices. Our fuel oil bill went up by a 1/3rd this year!

Hi Gerard

re LPG

we have LPG tank £345.87 for 900 litres was my last bill - thats a 1/3 more than last year - and we dont even live in our house yet - we looked at getting converted to oil but costs would be around £6k - so we're putting in multifuel stoves, going to wear lots of jumpers and eat porridge and only use boiler for HW - i want solar panels next year for water heating - but "I want , never gets" as my mum says

shelli

 

[AMc]

Shelli - I don't know what kind of 'mileage' 900 litres of gas gives you but my £440/1200 litres of oil lasted a little over a year (4 bed Georgian farmhouse). It was replaced with £440/900 litres this year and will (fingers crossed) see us through until the oil system is replaced with an air source heat pump over the summer.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Assuming that there are no listed building issues (it's not) and that the stack in the attic is otherwise sound how much do you think it would be to take the chimney back up through the roof and make it good again?

Depending on what you're going to use the flue for, and how visible it is, you might consider taking a metal fluepipe up through the roof rather than going to the expense of rebuilding a masonry stack. We did this recently to bring an old, roofed-over chimney back into use. We had a flanged stovepipe fabricated to form the structural element of the job, then fitted an insulated flexible liner inside that. It's not what you'd call beautiful, but it's not visible from many places. I like to think it has a 'workman-like' quality to it, and as the galvanising weathers down it will look better. Certainly easier and cheaper than rebuilding the chimmney stack, and much easier to make weatherproof. Although I fully accept that reinstating the masonry stack would be the optimum solution.

 

[MdB]

Our 1100 / 1200 litres of LPG lasted us from end of November until last Thursday when it ran out. This was to heat a poorly insulated 4 bed house in Cornwall. (Hot water and cooker was separate).

 

[DaveBrigg]

We rebuilt a chimney which had been sealed below the roof tiles.
Cost, £400 scaffolding
bricklaying, £600
I day sealing round chimney and relaying tiles £100
Bricks and lime about £150.

It's quite a tall chimney and double size.

The bill for repairing earthquake damage to one stack, which included repointing the two other linked stacks, came to £2,600! No wonder insurance premiums are going up. It pays to shop around!

You will probably have already checked this, but it is worth looking to make sure that nothing else has been removed or damaged within the house. If the chimney breast has been removed from any room, the additional weight of the stack could cause problems...