Why is it...

[Anonymous]

Why is it that things you wish had been done properly (by previous owners) on your home rarely were, yet things you want to gid rid off are constructed as robustly as battleships?

Today is removal of concrete raft which was poured on to block off the chimney from the room opening when the central heating boiler was installed, leaving only a small hole for the flue pipe.

It's taking a very long time to remove, even with a hired hammer drill thingy. Why? One thick layer of concrete poured in onto wooden planks which were removed when the concrete set, (the chimney breast must have had a hole put into it for this) then cast iron grids, probably from the old range,, placed on that, as the filling in a sandwhich before another thick layer of concrete was poured. Try drilling through that lot!

Grrrrrr!!!!!

Why not a simple, easy to remove register plate, sealed around the edges?

Broken through now (a great deal of soot to remove too) but it's taken all afternoon.

Just needed a rant really.

 

[Anonymous]

For the pedants out there - sandwich.

 

[Anonymous]

And a jolly good rant it was, too.

I hope you feel much better now; there's nothing like getting it off your chest, is there?

 

[Anonymous]

I've decided to demolish the horrible tiles and possibly tear apart the nasty kitchen units also ...

It's grim up the chimney now that the several inches of concrete have been removed, along with a piece of concrete asbestos pipe. The flue now has a piece of cast iron pipe stuck up it, jammed in with old bricks I see.

Oh well, it's all going to the local skip!

I've been told my job is climbing boy, to get up into the gathers and flue and remove the soot. I've done this before, it's not very pleasant!

The other half is unconvinced re stainless flexible liners and solid fuel, he thinks they don't last... any views on that gratefully received. It's too narrow for cow s**t and lime parging.

 

[Anonymous]

Well if its too narrow for cow#####and lime, maybe you can use a thinner more liquid form, like cow diarrhoea, sprayed from above

A bit more seriously, it dont half feel good when youve finally got the thing done.

Until you remember the other 28 presing things anyway. Savour the sweet moment!

NT

 

[Anonymous]

You are jolly lucky it only took an afternoon - it's a bitch of a job that I have always delegated to the newest and keenest of the building team!
I have had a flexible stainless liner in constant winter use for fourteen years - I don't think I would concern yourself about their longevity. Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

The job is far from over yet, as we still have a great deal to do in order to fit a newer, larger boiler. Plastering, flagstone hearth, wall to partly dismantle for a new soot door, lots of engineering of flue pipes, register plate, that's before the work to change the existing water pipes and get the thing installed. Electrics to sort... At least the raft is out and the cracked stone lintel hasn't collapsed. Yet.

Himself is still not convinced that a flexible stainless liner is long lasting enough - it's a chimney on a ridge, can't be accessed easily, and he has plans for a sectional terracotta one in the future, backfilled with vermiculite mix. We have already one of those. Let's just hope until then the existing 'naked' flue is up to the job still.

The other flue - the now lined one in the in the living room - was cracked, and leaking - we had the sooty skirting boards in the bedroom above scenario too. Smoke used to fill the room if the stove was lit. Not good! This one we are currently working on is Victorian, not Georgian so hopefully being new it will be in better nick!

The good news is - we have a second hand Trianco, delivered this morning by our coal man. He had it standing in a shed in his coalyard! A tiny fraction of the price of a new one! It looks OK, seems pretty sound, and if we renew the fan and thermostat hopefully will give us a few years' service. Hopefully the boiler isn't leaking. The nice people at discounted heating were fine about cancelling our order, as they had delivery delays. I can certainly recommend them to anyone for price and courtesy though.


http://www.discountedheating.co.uk

 

[Anonymous]

I have had some very bad experiences with the flue/masonary void being filled with vermiculite.
Basically this means that the stack is far more likely to become wet because it can only dry towards the outside.
If there is a lead dpc in the stack this will effectively be bridged causing moisture to travel downwards with resulting damage to abuting ceilings etc. In my experience this system is not to be recommended and can be disasterous with a cob stack!! Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Ours has been fine thankfully - but I do know of people who have had problems of that sort with 'pumped' sytems. Ours is a very light vermiculite mortar mix around terrcotta (coloured!) pipes and although not simple I think is reversible if it ever needed to be. The flue mostly runs through the bedroom wall, and then the loft. No, no lead flashing! Opinions regarding filling around liners seem to vary from don't to do, and what to fill with seems to be pretty controversial too. As indeed what to line with has pros and cons. And not cob but solid stone - the same sort they built Hadrian's Wall with I think, although, unlike buildings a little nearer than we are we aren't actually built from stone taken from Hadrian's Wall.

Now there's a large hole in the cross passage wall and a torch inspection seems to show a very sound flue. I have no doubt building regs requires a liner, but I reckon this is a repair not a new installation. <IMG SRC="http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussing/smileys/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=""> Now we have removed the concrete raft (why did they do this?) we can get a longer angled flue pipe from the stove up into the flue, a simple register plate made, with a better design of soot door and easier removal of fly ash.

Although the fireplace is blocked off as much as possible by placcy sheet, the muck deposited all over the kitchen is going to take some clearing up!

 

[Anonymous]

Which sandwich?

 

[Anonymous]

The explanation for this lies in nature's most fundamental and immutable law....

sod's.