I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6) They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in diameter. I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal. So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to breathe enough? Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ? Or could I cover them with a slate at an angle but without them catching the wind and coming off?
Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water and livestock ingress. I used these caps (about £20 each incl p&p) and they were very effective and easy to fit (once up there!).
thanks. Yes they do seem quite reasonably priced.However they just go up to
11" diameter whereas mine are 13" At present I have these chimneys capped with folded round and tied lead but I think that is the cause of the brown staining I have on the interior plaster below so I have to come up with something new that will allow ventilation and prevent the rain coming in at the same time...13" Chimney Pots ??? I take it you live in a big hoose? !!!
It's better to leave the chimney uncapped, than to cap it without ventilation. You need ventilation top and bottom, to ensure a through air current. If the chimney is on an outside wall and the fireplace is closed up, I would recommend ventilating it to the outside at the bottom, as that will avoid it drawing warm air out of the house.
One of mine was capped off at the top without any top ventilation.
20 years later, I found it was teaming with condensation running down inside. It hadn't shown up on the walls, because it had caused the plaster to come away from the damp brickwork, making a moisture barrier gap. I noticed when I went to strip the wallpaper and found the whole chimney breast seemed to be moving, but it was actually just the detached plaster. I went into the loft and carefully cut out half a brick into the right flue. It was already vented at the bottom, but that alone gives no air flow. Within a couple of days of making the top vent, the surface water inside the flue had gone, but it took another 3 months for the brickwork to dry out. This was about 7 years ago, and it's been fine since then. Actually, the flue was very handy for routing aerial cables down from the loft into the dining room.All the other flues are not capped at the top, and have never had any damp problem. The airflow through the flue easily copes with drying out the rain which goes into the top. Without airflow, a flue will gradually become saturated with condensation.
Yes it is a big old house and there are five of the chimneys with 13" diameters. I don't feel I can uncap them even though they seem to be badly capped as we get so much rainfall on the West Coast of Ireland.(also there is no damp course) So I really need to recap them properly but it seems that I may need to improvise if I can't buy a cowl that will fit. Also I have noticed that there are more chimneys than actual fireplaces .So that presumably means that that there are some fireplaces in rooms that were blocked before I came here., Am I going to be obliged to investigate ? It seems an awful job to do that....
In our case it was a (slightly) live duck found at the bottom. No idea how long it had been there - we all thought we were hearing things!
Round here they use ridge tiles, but I guess they're not big enough
how do you suppose they might fix them? Cement?
mary coughed up some electrons that declared:
No, you want some free ventilation - you need a slight draught up from the fireplace (or it's vent if bricked up) to prevent damp.
Here you go:
Cheers
Tim
In fact, now I've seen that, might get a couple for my chimneys!
shame it is too small.My chimney pot diameter is 13" and they go up to
10".mary coughed up some electrons that declared:
Sorry - I missed the bit about your pot being so big.
I'm sure if you google long enough, you should be able find a suitable part.
(Sometimes, I've had to google on and off for a week to find something obscure - but, more often than not, someone makes the thing you're after).
I started with "stainless cowl", thinking that, as you'd fit a stainless cowl to the top of a chimney liner for a log stove (something I'll be doing later), then maybe you could just glue the cowl on, without the liner. I didn't realise that they actually made variants just for capping off.
That leads onto another line of attack - try a local log stove shop (that fits them), because they might just have something suitable, plus they have the knowledge on site.
Cheers
Tim
I did something similar last year when I had scaffolding access to the roof. The caps I used were I think made by 'Brewer' and it was the one with a large jubilee clip which went over the pot. I got these from local fireplace shop.
Before fitting it I made a couple of mods to it. Squirted some expanding foam to the underneath and drilled 3 equi distant holes on the edge. I then put a longish cable tie on each hole and zipped up tight. When fitted these point upwards and deter any birds which would otherwise stop off for a rest and/or poo.
Dave.
I only looked for a few weeks last year when we were doing/getting done our chimneys* but I only saw ridge tiles use where the pots had been removed. I easily could be wrong though. And if the pots are removed then ordinary terracotta flue vents could be used for around £20 a pop. May spoil the look of the house though: 14 inch pots sound gorgeous. Photos coming?
*Not all DIY despite scaffolding being up as I didn't fancy balancing the ladder on the ridge the way the roofers did for the main stack.
No, you're not wrong. They're used where the pots have been removed. Silly me.
this is a photo.
-this is a photo.
-
-where the other 2 or 3 lead to but I supose if I can work it out then
-I will try ro vent them.
Very nice too. Ahhh, to have a house where you don't know where the chimneys lead....
shouldnt be too hard to guess where the chimney pots come from, upstairs bedrooms either side of the stack, downstairs rooms either side of the stack, but five?
if you're very lucky you've got one coming from the cellar..
I say ''shouldnt be too hard' but I've still got > >>> I only looked for a few weeks last year when we were doing/getting done
Two slates in an inverted V, stitched using heavy gauge copper wire along the 'hinge' (with cement as an optional extra), and cemented to the pots on the lower edge.
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