What can I do to disguise this flue?

[worms]

Did the house originally only have that one chimney at the back? Were there no fires in the rest of the building?

 

[Tom]

Did the house originally only have that one chimney at the back? Were there no fires in the rest of the building?

The front of the house faces East. There used to be an external chimney stack on the North facing wall (similar to that on the back West facing wall) but that, too, was removed in the 1960's :evil: Those were the only 2 stacks.

 

[Penners]

until you get it checked don't ask Gareth around for tea and biscuits

Not if you want to have any biscuits left, that is.

 

[Feltwell]

I've got the answer for you Jaqy.

Have a look at these - look, on the first link you can even get it stone clad!!!! :wink:

http://www.apexbrickcutters.co.uk/pre_fabricated_real_brick_slip_chimneys.html

http://www.wessexbuildingproducts.co.uk/pdfs/QUICKSTACK4.pdf

http://www.masonrysolutions.co.uk/products-chimneys-prefab.htm

Anyone who suggests sticking a plastic chimney on the top of Jaqy's so-far lovingly restored old stone house is about as appropriate as suggesting that the Queen has a boob job just isn't moving with the times you know...... :wink:

 

[Tom]

I'm finding it difficult to believe that these things exist :shock: I mean, who the Hell first thought of producing plastic imitation chimneys? I'm amazed! Needless to say, not even the finest example would find its way onto my roof :roll:

 

[Feltwell]

I mean, who the Hell first thought of producing plastic imitation chimneys?

The same sort of people that produce brick arches bonded onto steel lintels with a pre-fitted white plastic filler panel underneath, that produce stone cills made out of concrete, that produce sliding sashes made out of plastic, that produce casement windows made out of plastic doing a bad imitation of sash windows.....

Look round any new housing estate - it's full of all these things. Depressing.

 

[Tom]

Depressing, indeed. It saddens me to think that someone who thinks these kind of things are a good idea might, one day, be the custodian of my house.....God forbid

 

[Flyfisher]

I mean, who the Hell first thought of producing plastic imitation chimneys?

Probably the same person who first thought of producing plastic imitation windows. 'who the Hell' indeed - 'tis the work of the devil alright.

I'm amazed!

I'm depressed!

Did anyone see that 'James May Toys' prog on telly recently? That lego house he built could catch on.

 

[Feltwell]

I can understand the wish to add character to new houses, it's just seems to be done in a rather mis-guided way.

Look at housing estates from the 1970's and 80's especially - I'm sure Gareth will find an example of an architecturally good one, but most seem to be endless cul-de-sacs of identical bland little boxes - the "Barratt Box" syndrome.

The ones that are being built now, there does seem to be some effort at least to mix the style of housing in the development, so they are not all identical boxes.

But the attempt to add character can be done so badly. There is an estate going up opposite my daughter's school. They have genuinely tried to put some variety in it - the plot sizes are ludicrously small as ever, but houses in the same street are at least built in different but complimentary type of brick, some are rendered, roof heights vary etc. However, they also included some fake stone built houses -they are basically breeze block that has been stone clad after - but the cladding is so bad, it looks like someone crazy paved the driveway, got a bit carried away and covered the whole house.

 

[philpjuk100]

In a hundred years time will these "Barratt boxes" be period homes? will people be hunting for blue baths,woodchip and artex?stranger things happen,look at all these great restored victorian terraced houses that were being artexed and stone faced fourty years ago!phil.

 

[Tom]

In a hundred years time will these "Barratt boxes" be period homes? will people be hunting for blue baths,woodchip and artex?stranger things happen,look at all these great restored victorian terraced houses that were being artexed and stone faced fourty years ago!phil.

God, what a frightening thought :shock: Thankfully, we won't be around to witness such lunacy

 

[Jon Maine]

In a hundred years time will these "Barratt boxes" be period homes? will people be hunting for blue baths,woodchip and artex?stranger things happen,look at all these great restored victorian terraced houses that were being artexed and stone faced fourty years ago!phil.

God, what a frightening thought :shock: Thankfully, we won't be around to witness such lunacy

Thankfully nor will many of those buildings as they are in my opinion not going to stand the test of time as well as our proper built houses :wink:

 

[Penners]

who the Hell first thought of producing plastic imitation chimneys? I'm amazed!

I don't know why you're so horrified, Jaqy. There's nothing wrong with a plastic chimney, just so long as you only have plastic fires at the bottom of it.

It's like one episode of The Goon Show (that you'll be much too young to remember). Winston Churchill was persuaded to float a cardboard replica of the UK in the English Channel, in order to fool the German bombers.

But it didn't work - the Germans dropped cardboard bombs on it.

 

[Roger H]

I've got the answer for you Jaqy.

Have a look at these - look, on the first link you can even get it stone clad!!!!

So.. if you have a proposal for a house (or even several dozen identical houses) that is pared down to a box and a pitched roof, how can some 'visual interest' be added without recourse to the barratt home twiddly bits? The brick-slip chimney on the Feltwell link looks ok to my eye.. (Housing ventilation ducts?)

Why bother with any architectural 'ornament' if it is no longer functionally needed?

 

[Jon Maine]

I've got the answer for you Jaqy.

Have a look at these - look, on the first link you can even get it stone clad!!!!

So.. if you have a proposal for a house (or even several dozen identical houses) that is pared down to a box and a pitched roof, how can some 'visual interest' be added without recourse to the barratt home twiddly bits? The brick-slip chimney on the Feltwell link looks ok to my eye.. (Housing ventilation ducts?)

Why bother with any architectural 'ornament' if it is no longer functionally needed?

That's something that annoys me, fakery for the sake of it. Although there is some good modern architecture but it exists in low single percentage points with stuff that will stand the test of time.

Personally I love the vernacular......... That's it I have come out, well again at least.

(I do agree with disguising modern blemishes on older properties a bit more so, if practical)

 

[Roger H]

Agreed Jon. Nonetheless, the vernacular is prohibitively expensive these days (although it would be possible if self-build was allowed extensively). A Barratt box will have a gas boiler so no chimney; ventilation via a ventilation tile so no opportunity for any expression there. Concrete tiles on a shallow roof pitch. Brick from anywhere.

The elements that draw us to the vernacular (steep roof pitches, strong chimney stacks, natural materials, locally sourced) aren't needed in 'modern', volume construction. The result is that, except in a few isolated examples, modern buildings look bl##dy awful.

How can this be gotten round?

 

[Wren]

Just a thought (because the do nothing option is more than OK) -
I think the answer could lie in what you might want to do after the house project is more or less finished i.e. the landscaping bit. If you imagine the scaffolding gone and the house surrounded with more plants then I think the eye will be drawn to other focal points and the planting could also soften the overall visual effect (the house nestled in its surroundings). I am imagining a few trees (possibly fruit/nut trees, but maybe something decorative as well), a flower garden, kitchen garden, possibly a climbing rose on the walls of your beautiful house etc.
Would be interesting to know what type of garden would have gone with your house originally.

Actually I think landscaping is equally if not more important for new buildings as well (and can be incorporated with environmentally-friendly rainwater/wastewater management). They do some whizzy things on the continent, which you hardly ever see over here.

 

[Jon Maine]

modern buildings look bl##dy awful. How can this be gotten round?

How do you make the populus more discerning, that is probably the key issue. Where there is a demand for Noddy houses they will keep being built and sold.

 

[Feltwell]

Actually I think landscaping is equally if not more important for new buildings as well (and can be incorporated with environmentally-friendly rainwater/wastewater management). They do some whizzy things on the continent, which you hardly ever see over here.

I think the problem there is the plot size on new builds - they're so small they don't offer much opportunity for landscaping, plus if you've got kids you want at least a halfway decent size patch of grass for them to play on.

 

[Feltwell]

So.. if you have a proposal for a house (or even several dozen identical houses) that is pared down to a box and a pitched roof, how can some 'visual interest' be added without recourse to the barratt home twiddly bits? The brick-slip chimney on the Feltwell link looks ok to my eye.. (Housing ventilation ducts?)

Why bother with any architectural 'ornament' if it is no longer functionally needed?

Roger, you take me too seriously. In context - i.e. on top of Jaqy's 200-300-ish year old (I can't remember!) stone house - a GRP chimney does sound pretty inappropriate, especially if stone clad!

As I said in the later post, I fully understand the desire to add character to new houses, it's the mis-guided way in which it is often done that annoys me - when it just looks fake. Do it well and then why not?

I was down at the Blists Hill museum in Ironbridge at the weekend - a favourite trip to keep the kids occupied, they love the Victorian sweet shop and it's only a few miles from me, so I keep season tickets. They've recently opened their new Canal Street development, i.e. another replica, or fake if you prefer, street of Victorian buildings.

I've watched these being built over several months - it's all modern construction, cavity walls, lots of insulation etc etc. No reclaimed materials as far as I could see. The finished result looks really good - but still not quite right. Then it hit me - it doesn't look quite right because it is new, and we're used to seeing a rather more weathered 100+ year old version of that street. It does look exactly like it would have looked 100 years ago when it really was new, which is rather the whole point!

I'm not advocating that all new developments should be Victorian replicas, but I am saying that it should be possible to build new buildings that have character without them looking like cheap fakes.