5 Flues, two floors, any suggestions

[kreyszig]

I'm a bit puzzled by the fact that we have 5 pots on our largest chimney, but have only got four fireplaces that we know of. Downstairs, there's the kitchen which is currently housing a boiler- so I know which one that is: the gas cowl is sitting in the space of an old clay pot, parts of which surround it, i.e it hasn't been shoehorned in.
In the dining room on the other side of the chimney there is a 1980's Rayburn, that's another flue explained (although why there is a cooker in the dining room is not). Then upstairs there are two bedrooms, with one fireplace each.
I'm thinking/hoping that there is something interesting to find downstairs. Both fireplaces have been tiled over so until we start renovating we can't see what is happening with the brickwork. Would it be common to have more than one flue in a room (late Vic/early Edwardian)? The space the Rayburn is in isn't quite inglenook territory but must be 5-6 feet. Two stoves in the kitchen perhaps?

 

[Feltwell]

I've also got more flues than fireplaces - 7 flues, 5 fireplaces.

The other two were for the range in the kitchen, and one going into the corner of what was the scullery - presumably for a wash copper for hot water. Could this be the same reason for your extra flue?

Friends of mine have an original range in the dining room of their 1920's house. Why the dining room? Well, we're pretty sure that the room out the back of the house that is now their kitchen was originally the scullery, for all the washing of clothes and dishes etc and perhaps the messier food preparation. What is now the dining room was once the kitchen.

 

[MatthewC]

Is your house a conversion, or has it been modified or extended over the years? I found an extra flue in my lounge, both the square hole in the wall at the top when we did the roof, and the "making good" in the lounge wall when we did the plastering. In fact my electrician also found the flue when he was inserting the box for a double socket in the bedroom ! However, I do know that this fireplace existed because the original building (c. 1830) was simply a rectangular schoolroom, and my house is the back half of that - hence the fire was probably the only means of heating the entire school room, and became redundant when they more than doubled the size of the structure to make it two dwellings (in about 1860, I think).

Matthew

 

[Flyfisher]

I have some house photos from the 1930s showing a chimney stack with two pots, which ties in with sitting room and bedroom fireplaces. The downstairs room next to the sitting room was converted into a kitchen during the 30s and one of the photos shows the same stack had been enlarged and another two pots added. Both these new flues went into the kitchen - one to the inglenook/fireplace and one to the a side alcove.

When we arrived, the fireplace was fitted with a Rayburn stove and the side alcove flue is just a round hole. This would seem to tie in with Feltwell's suggestion of a flue for a range and a flue for something else and my bet is that the 'missing' flue will be in the kitchen somewhere - though if it has been bricked-up and plastered over, it might be quite difficult to find. All part of the fun of playing 'house detective' though

 

[kreyszig]

Thanks both. The house is pretty unchanged as far as we know. A semi of what seems to be pretty typical layout for the time.
The old scullery is behind the current kitchen, (the door between them now bricked up). The door is on the other side of the room cf. the fireplace, so to use the chimney there would have to have been a flue pipe passing through the kitchen.
Two flues for a range in the kitchen would fit - I didn't realise that was a thing! I'd be surprised if the dining room has ever been a kitchen - the ceiling looks too elaborate to me to put in a kitchen (lincrusta/cameoid everywhere)

edit: Didn't mean to exclude you in my thanks there, Flyfisher, I must have submitted just after you. I think an extra flue in the kitchen sounds more and more likely. I am really looking forward to uncovering that fireplace now! If for no other reason than to remove the tiles surrounding the rayburn..the ones with wine bottles that have the year "1987" proudly displayed on their labels...

 

[skier-hughes]

One of our chimneys is for a room next to the lounge and dining room and heads off at a funny angle at first until it then goes directly vertical next to the other chimneys.

 

[philpjuk100]

Chimbleys!

 

[xanthe]

Blimey! Looks like something out of Dr Who. :shock:

 

[plasticpigeon]

I also have 2 flues from where a kitchen range once was, one for the range and one for a copper.

 

[Feltwell]

Might be we were a bit posh having a separate scullery with a wash copper in. It was a fairly middle class house for the period.

 

[CliffordPope]

7 flues, 9 fireplaces.

4 of the fireplaces now blocked up.

The old range and bread oven shared a flue, meeting half-way up the stack.
The old Rayburn shared a flue with the dining room fireplace, meeting half way up the other stack.

The new Rayburn has a new lined flue. emerging at a previously redundant additional single stack.


I'm sure it's not recommended for fires to share flues, but in the past they did all sorts of odd things.

 

[Flyfisher]

Regarding sharing of flues, one of our chimneys has three flues; downstairs and upstairs fireplaces and one for an old outhouse. When we had a liner for a stove installed in the upstairs fireplace, the installer told us that there was no 'feathering' in the upper section of the chimney and that this would cause problems if we ever wanted to install a stove in the downstairs fireplace because the regulations do not allow two liners in a single flue.

I can understand that shared flues are not desirable because of how they might affect the appliances sharing the flue, but two liners would effectively mean two completely separate flues so I can't really understand the reasoning for this regulation.

Our installer suggested it might be something to do with protecting one liner from a chimney fire in the other liner, but he admitted he was only guessing.

 

[Mr Lincrusta]

Hi some pictures of the ceiling would be great, I can do a bit of digging this end and se what I can find out for you?