Well it survived. But boy it was windy - forecast was revised back up to
62mph and it sounded like it. +1 to me for having 2 giant leylandii near the house halved in height a few years back!
Anyway, got all year and it's a zero dependency (on me) external job with fairly access (though I suspect it will need a scaffold platform) so I'll look to getting it shortened and capped with vents - ie about
6ft removed.
Looking at it yesterday evening, the bricks are continuing to spall and a lump of the top corner is missing so it's not going to get any better.
We had a house with chimney stacks that leant over. The surveyor said it was because of prevailing winds, with the rain washing the mortar out more on one side than the other. We did take them down, to below the level of the roof. We added air bricks for ventilation, and we never had any damp problems.
Just call me Mr Paranoia... In fact I named a new law:
Squidward's Law:
If you do everything possible to prevent all forseeable mishaps, subject to Sod's Law and Murphy's Law, then something will still go wrong.
It will be something so utterly and ridiculously unpredictable that you will wonder in awe for weeks as to how it came to pass.
I have witnessed this on several occasions. Mostly work related, but my employer seems to have *special powers* in this area.
Once in home life.
I'd start thinking about tree surgery there! But leave it for a few weeks as they are going to be doing a fair amount of emergency work right now - at least around here (20 trees down last night in East Sussex).
The tree is actually on council land and is the only thing stopping them from building 6 houses next door to us. We got a preservation order on it a while back, and the bigger it gets the further away the building needs to be. Needless to say I feed it daily.
It's not bad, apart from some spalling. Still seems to have pointing. But it's going to get worse and it's this year or 10 years down the line, so might as well be this year.
I think I would (for simplicity) take it down to 1-2 courses above the highest flashing (which is about 1-2 courses above the "shelf".
And cap it with something decorative, vented and with a bit of an overhang to encourage rain to fall to the roof rather than keep hitting the bricks. Not sure what yet. Definitely not a paving slab (unless it's got something decorative on top).
Whilst it would be "nice" to remove it totally, it's a lot more work for virtually no gain - and someone else can carry on the good work later if they want - I don't want any more heavy "internal" works - done with those.
This is 1950s? Is the mortar black (ash added) or conventional coloured?
Remember they are very heavy - they lean or twist vs fall. If the mortar is black it can vary, they end up twisting.
Ours was 140 bricks from gutter and 2 bricks wide, 98 bricks removed so abo ut 2 bricks above DPC on the high side of the roof. It was walking.
Fall risk comes down to how exposed you are. An opposite neighbour's did fall c.1984-87 but that is exposed to prevailin g wind AND faces a field some 0.75 miles long. It fell (rocked) in the dire ction the wind was coming from surprisingly. Demolished the ground floor le an to because it fell a fair distance onto it. No-one in it at the time.
More of an issue, to be honest, can be water penetration. UK rainfall is about 72inch - might be wrong - but if that is an open pot y ou have a lot of water going down it saturating brickwork and underfloor vo ids. 1950s chimney work depends on the brickie who may be excellent or abys mal - black mortar is hygroscopic and water saturation not uncommon. If you have water tanks by the chimney, check the floor behind, it may be r otten and often is. Other weakness of 1950s is the quarry skirting tiles br idge the DPC (lower if there are two of them).
Does not cost much to take it down 5-10 courses, slate & side vent the top. It comes down to access and getting quotes. To do it properly, go below ro of level, ventilate it absolutely and just retile & batten.
I only have the pointing to go by but that (and the mortar in the rest of the house) is the usual stuff - and should be cement based. Are you thinking of some funky stuff that used fly ash as a filler?
140 courses for a 2 brick width? Bloody hell - that must have looked scary.
Indeed. And birds plus their nests. The amount of nest material I removed was insane. I asked the chap who installed my liner in the other stack to cap them with some clip on pepper pots and that has helped - at least kepping the birds out!
Used to - that's gone. I have checked the timbers around the stack from the inside and all seems well.
Access is good - though it's about 3m in from the roof eaves so not sure how they will do it. In the old days it would probably have been a ladder job, but I expect a limited scaffold tower with a side section.
Fair point. I think I will stick to my plan at this stage to keep works external - I have many other jobs this year and I don't want to be monitoring works coming inside the roof. It will solve my main concern.
It is typically 450-1200mm annual average depending on area.
Whatever, an open pot lets a lot of water down and many chimney's have real ly hygroscopic mortar anyway. I should also add SOME 1950s chimney's have a parge coat outside and even inside of "black mortar", so act like a sponge . The better / what the builder considered "main" chimney got white fire ce ment parge coat, hard as nails. Often blue glazed cement tiles in the firep lace depending on usage, and people DID often set fire to the chimney burni ng wood as quite a few severe winters in the following decades.
My neighbour took down their chimney ~20 years ago. He needed hardcore for the kitchen floor, so he just lifted off each brick and then dropped it down the flue, where it emerged in the kitchen.
Well can't quite say what that will take in terms of windload it is a tall one for its width and length but I'd guess that if the mortar joints are good throughout then it doesn't seem to me to be in any immediate danger.
I've in the past seen a lot worse than that still standing. If it does give you peace of mind in lowering it a bit I reckon thats a scaffold job as I very much doubt you'll be able to work up at the top of that off such as roof ladders etc and I wouldn't want to try and lift them pots off above my head and I'm 2 metres in height those things are very heavy!..
If it were lime mortar like then you can almost lift each brick off the other with a gentle tap, but I reckon that will be angle grinder or chisel to make them part!.
Rough guess estimate that lot above the lead flashing somewhere around the 800 KG mark..
Gut feeling?, leave it alone for another few years yet.
When I had the solid fuel stove installed, the pot on the other stack was a bit of tin from the gas boiler I'd just removed. However, the original pot was in the garden being used as a plant pot - so I cleaned it up and offered it to the stove fitter to put back and terminate his flexi flue into. Yes, it was not little or light!
Has teh same problem with a couple of gate pillars which were about 6' tall and one was leaning like the Pisa Tower and I was scared it would fall over and kill a kid.
Took 3' off with a bolster and club hammer - couple of well placed blows sheared each brick's joint. The capstones weighed a bloody ton!
Stopped at 3' as that was clearly the original pillar which had later been extended and the hollow core at that point was filled with VERY hard concrete - so I decided, lean or no lean, this bit was unlikely to fall over.
I can imagine.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll get some quotes anyway.
I did wonder if a cherry picker would be appropriate. I've got a 4' concrete path there with a further 2' of ground, or a further 8' of ground if coming back in front of the shed. Seeing as it's a job that a fit bloke could probably do in 1-2 days, it might be cost effective.
Would need a height of 6.7m to top of cradle sides, and a reach of about
This (link below, google "chimney height to width ratio" to find it) sugges ts that a height to narrowest width ratio more than 4.5:1 is dangerous. S o your stack at 12ft/2ft is over the limit.
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