chimney cowls

[plasticpigeon]

Hello folks, I need to change the cowls on my chimneys. When there was scaffold up I put some cowls on the top of my chimneys at the back of the house, but these are not effective at stopping the rain coming in. My question is twofold.

1) which is the best type of cowl to stop water ingress but allow ventilation?

2) what is the cheapest way of getting up there to change the cowls. I'm guessing height is around 25ft. Space is limited, but I have about 3 ft between the chimney and outhouse that I could put a tower in or a ladder in. Scaffold I suppose is an option but I know this will be around £300 which is steep just to change some cowls. Maybe there are fellas that enjoy this type of risk taking for a few quid, I don't know where they'd hang out. Local climbing wall maybe???


Any help will be gratefully received.

 

[DJH]

What about a ridge ladder Plastic? A ladder with little wheels to push it up the roof and a hook thingy which when you've pushed the ladder up you turn it over and it hooks in place. Maybe your local hire centre would have one and deliver it as well perhaps. Got one here if you want to borrow it... :lol:

 

[plasticpigeon]

Ah, yes I see that. The neighbours chimney joins mine and has no pots on it so the hook could sit on there. I guess I would have to sit on the chimney to pull the cowls off though. It would also test the integrity of the chimney which was built earlier this year. I don't have a lot of faith in it though! I could push it up the roof too , but then I suppose I'd need a tower to get up as far as the eaves or be very brave and use an extendable ladder! Do you think a roofer could do this job with ladders?

 

[DJH]

Oops. The ladder will hook over the ridge of the roof alongside the chimney..

 

[plasticpigeon]

Ha, you got there before I edited!!!

 

[DJH]

I would think so Plastic. Do you know of one?

 

[plasticpigeon]

Well I have no faith in tradesmen round here as I keep banging on about, but a bloke a mate works with does some roofing. Going 30 ft up ladders and hoisting terracotta chimney cowls around seems a bit banzai for my liking, which is why I was thinking of a tower, but if someone else is willing to take the risk for less than hiring a tower, I'll definitely go with that! I'll have to have an ask around. Do you know anyone in the Birmingham area???

 

[LadyArowana]

The roof on our apartment building gets inspected by lads who work as " industrial abseilers " ( that's what it says on their overalls ). Don't know if someone like that would do chimbley though.

 

[plasticpigeon]

That's one of those jobs that sounds really cool when introducing oneself down the pub. One of my mates was studying for an LLM and really wanted to be a treasury devil just for the job title. He never achieved his goal unfortunately.

 

[DJH]

I'm reminded of the CO in my area who used to abseil down chimney stacks and church towers. She hurt her back doing it if I recall correctly.

 

[worms]

I think you would need to find a self-employed roofer, since HSE would probably take a dim view of employees being asked to do it the way you need it to be done. Nowadays even bungalows seem to get the scaffold treatment before any work can be done.

 

[Flyfisher]

I wouldn't recommend replacing a chimney cowl as a DIY job unless you're very confident at heights. Even then, it only takes one slip. :shock:

The chaps who fitted one of our chimney liners were quite happy with a just a roof ladder, as you can see in the photo below. Although we had scaffolding to the eaves at the time, there was no scaffolding on the gable wall when this was done so it was a long way down from the chimney stack! Worms makes a good point about HSE - the chaps in the photo were self-employed.

I can't really see that abseiling would be of much use, because that's a technique for coming down from high structures, so by the time you've climbed the chimney to fix the required ropes, the cowl could already have been changed anyway!

If access is good then a cherry-picker is probably the safest method for a DIYer and almost certainly cheaper than bespoke scaffoling.

 

[DJH]

Done it like that myself quite a few times over the years. Once on the gable end of an old mill four storeys up, no scaffold just a wooden triple extender which weighed a ton and a ridge ladder. Colyton in Devon if I remember right. I was lucky and got away with it..... :shock:

 

[Flyfisher]

I seem to recall Fred Dibnah in one of his TV programmes saying 'you only make one mistake in this job'.

The other phrase that comes to mind is 'history is written by the survivors'.

 

[88v8]

I had trouble with water coming down our live stacks. I've fixed one, not quite fixed the other but I will. What type/size of pots do you have?

Here, I cannot climb on the roof as it's thatch, so the ladder has to reach all the way to the top of the stack. This means I have to raise it so far I have to climb up a stepladder to elevate the extension ladder far enough. Then we lower it into place with a long rope attached to the top, you see it lying on the ground here while we were lining the flue. And the garden slopes steeply both ways, which makes putting up the ladder even more interesting. :shock:

In our previous house I used an extension ladder, plus a roof ladder (aka cat ladder)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Titan-Roof-Cat-Ladders-4-27-Meters-Long-/230896992419?pt=UK_H_G_Ladders_RL&hash=item35c28880a3
which I made myself of 2" x 1" with a set of bolt-on wheels+hook. I used to be terrified climbing a ladder, clung on, crawled up. But I decided that if I was going to DIY then I had to get used to it, so I did. Now I go up and down with no fear.

I guess it's one of those things that can be learned. The main thing to remember is to hang on with one hand most of the time; a roofer summed it up as 'one hand for yourself and one for the job'. If you're a Hobbit omit the 's'.

Ivor

 

[another_richard]

If you are unluck to fall off and slide down the slated roof wear (as I did) rubber shoes or summit similar to act as brakes. Life saver. Warm outstretched hands on slate make reasonably good brakes too.

And, drill one of those bolds with an 0 on the end and hook yer'sen to it.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks Richard, I think I shall be asking someone else to do this job for me after the posts on here!! My neighbours are putting a massive dormer on their roof at the back, it's unsightly but it will mean that their builder should be able to change my cowls for me. They couldn't mess that simple job up could they???

 

[CliffordPope]

If you have ever been up a ladder and felt it slide slightly under you then you will never ever rely on resting a ladder on anything other than concrete or a substantial plank of wood to even the pressure on the two sides.
Resting one side on a bit of wood and the other on grass is asking for it to slip suddenly.

Just picture having to clutch the gutter for dear life to stop the ladder sliding. Now imagine letting go of the gutter and wondering whether you can get down the ladder before it slides sideways off the end of the gutter.

 

[rogerh]

This is the way to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrnuhrqVN1M

(Makes me feel ill just watching it.)

 

[88v8]

If you have ever been up a ladder and felt it slide slightly under you then you will never ever rely on resting a ladder on anything other than concrete or a substantial plank of wood to even the pressure on the two sides.
Resting one side on a bit of wood and the other on grass is asking for it to slip suddenly.

Yes. After first erecting it, I crept slowly up the ladder and tied it around the stack. I generally like to tie the ladder at the top if I can, especially if I'll be leaning sideways. Subsequently, when putting up the ladder again to rectify the water coming down the flue, I did away with the wood and bolted a length of wood to one side of the ladder to offset the slope.

When using a cat ladder it's useful to tie the extension ladder at the top - perhaps to a screw eye in the verge or gutter board - as one has to push the cat ladder up the roof, and this tends to push the extension ladder off the wall.

I tried to find a video showing how to put up a cat ladder, but you can guess the sort of thing I found... sigh...
http://catladder.blogspot.co.uk/

Ivor