new fire, very hot chimney

[Martin]

i've had a new fire put in (class 2 flue), and the fitter told us to expect a very hot chimney. It seems that when the house was built, the builders didn't install any reflective plaster board on the chimney, and also put down very thin layer of plaster. ...and the fitter was right. It is very hot :)

Is there anything i can do, aside from the large task of installing reflective plaster board on the chimney - re-platering - getting fire re-fitted, etc. Is there any special paint i can put on, as a sort of undercoat to keep the heat in the chimney??

also, what are the consequence of doing nothing?? Peeling paint perhaps??

[Grunff]

No, no special paint will stop your chimney from getting hot. Insulation is really the only way to reduce the amount of heat getting through.

[Neil Jones]

Insulation

I can't quite get my head round trying to stop a fire from putting heat into a room.

[Martin]

heat into room is a good thing :) Very hot chimneys such that the wallpaper and/or paint peels away into a horrible sight is a bad thing :(

[Pecanfan]

The plaster will almost certainly start to crack after a while. I would also imagine the contraction and expansion caused by the temperature extremes would eventually cause the plaster to lose it's key to the wall altogether.

Andy

[Andrew Gabriel]

Is there a cavity between the flue and wall, down which you could pour vamiculite supposing you could gain access at the top?

[Andrew Gabriel]

^^^^^^^^^^ vermiculite

[N. Thornton]

nor me :) If it turns out the plaster cant take it, lime plaster behaves much better in terms of cracking, and is self healing.

Regards, NT

[Neil Jones]

OK, but isn't there some way of 'deflecting' the heat into the room rather than sending it up the chimney?