What does the cross section of a chimney/flue look like in a 2 storey house?

Hi all, I'm trying to thread some house pipe down from the loft to the living room in my old (roughly 1890's) house (Improptu conduit to allow me to feed network cable into the living room).

There are no fireplaces in the house and the chimneys on the roof have been capped so I don't have any worries about a future owner mistakenly trying to light a fire (I hope at least).

Anyway, I've drilled a hole and keep trying to thread the hose pipe down, but I think I keep hitting the 1st floor bedroom (have dropped some steel bearings down and heard the thud but not seen them in the living room too).

So, I'm wondering, how does a chimney work in a two storey house that had two fireplaces (living room and master bedroom). Does the chimney split sideways (one side for one room the other side for the other room), or, is it a back and front configuration, or, is it just on big flue?

I've drilled my hole towards the left side of the stack in the loft and I don't want to go drilling extra holes willy nilly but am wondering if I move it far to the right if I would be more likely to make it to the living room.

Hope someone can understand what I'm asking (I think I've phrased it all in a round about manner) and hopefully I'm not asking a really silly question.

Thanks for any answers.

Seri

Reply to
Seri
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========================================= A general idea here:

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Reply to
Cicero

Speaking as someone who had the fireplace opened up, I'd not be sure about that. Admittedly the chimeny wasn't properly capped - but it wouldn't have cost /much/ more to have a new pot put in place.

Reply to
Martin Bonner

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Thanks Cic, that was pretty much what I was after but had been unable to find on google... looks like if I want to get to the downstairs opening then I'll have to some how go "through" the upstairs chimney first... it's all sounding like far more work that I expected... time to sleep on it I think.

Thanks again

Seri

Reply to
Seri

In addition to the other replies - IMHO it's quite common for the internal walls within old disused chimneys to have collapsed, at least partially (certainly has been the case with two old houses I've lived in) so there may not be a path through as such.

Spurious horizontal sections of chimney are also pretty common - so all in all this task may not be as straightforward as you imagine!

David

Reply to
Lobster

Hi Seri,

Have you got a downstairs loo? When I was doing the same thing in a house of similar age I ran the cable (in fact a great loom of cables) down through some boxing which accomodated the soil stack from the downstairs loo through to the upstairs bathroom and out through the roof. From there I could easily get it through to the cellar and underneath the floors.

That was about five years ago. I made sure I put co-ax and cat 5 in every possible corner and alcove. It's proved really useful ever since.

Cheers!

Martin

Reply to
Martin Pentreath

========================================= I think you would have to drill from the underside of the sloping part of the brickwork (in the loft) to get direct access to the ground floor chimney. I had no greater success than you when I wanted to do something similar. Some years ago I made a brief attempt to get an aerial down the chimney pot (actually an aerial fitter tried) but failed, possibly because of some obstruction as suggested by another poster. I know that my chimneys have *free air access* because of the draught but it seems that a dislodged brick or mortar prevents anything solid being lowered. Eventually, the aerial was routed down the outside as god intended.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

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