How O Repair Flaking Brick Chimney

Mostly the highest point on a building'southward roof, chimneys are important architectural features simply often suffer from neglect, despite having the potential to crusade disastrous fires and major damage should parts of the masonry come loose and fall off the property.

Convinced? Read on to discover out more than about maintaining your chimney.

This feature is an edited extract from the Victorian & Edwardian Business firm Manual by Ian Rock, published past Haynes. Ian Rock is a chartered surveyor and manager of survey cost comparison website rightsurvey.co.britain

Why maintain a chimney?

The flue within a chimney conducts poisonous smoke and gases away due to the warm air from the burn down ascension, creating an upward draught or describe. For this to happen, it must exist clear of blockages, the fireplace opening must be the right size, the room must have sufficient ventilation and in that location must exist no downdraught from exterior.

Is your chimney rubber?

Before using a chimney for the first time, check it's safe and in good working lodge. Always burn dry, well-seasoned wood to avoid tar deposits collecting within the flue.

Chimneys that are used must be professionally swept regularly and carbon monoxide and smoke alarms should be installed and tested monthly. Chimney repairs involve working at acme, so necessitate the utilize of scaffolding and are mostly best left to a builder who has an agreement of old buildings.

Chimney construction

Even in parts of the land where rock was the traditional edifice material, the Victorians often used brick for chimneys, as information technology is better able to withstand intense heat.

Chimney pots perform a very applied purpose in improving efficiency by raising the summit of the chimney without the demand to build excessively tall and beefy stacks. This helps to prevent down-draughts and smoky fires, which can still be a problem today where properties are overshadowed by tall nearby trees, roofs, hills or loftier-rise buildings.

Pots were secured in identify into the upper chimney brickwork and bedded in thick layers of mortar, or 'flaunching'. Victorian chimneys were commonly built into the party walls of terraces and semi-detached houses as very wide structures containing multiple flues. Likewise as beingness economical to construct, this helped insulate them from the common cold.

Flues, which contain the internal space enclosed by the chimney brickwork, were lined internally with a layer of lime render, or 'parging', to protect the masonry and prevent fume escaping through whatever gaps in the mortar joints.

What materials are used to build chimneys?

Brick, stone and slate: Separately and in combination, these materials are used to build the chimney stack and to form the mid-feathers or withes, the internal divisions between flues from different fireplaces.

Lime: Mortar and renders fabricated from lime allow for flexibility and expansion, both important factors in chimneys. Some chimneys are finished internally with a coat of lime plaster or 'parging' to provide a smooth, leak-costless lining.

Terracotta: Chimney pots made of terracotta often terminate chimneys, sometimes providing a decorative flourish.

*Some Victorian chimney stacks have Tudor pattern influences*

Dealing with chimney defects

Exposed for well over a century to the worst the British weather tin can throw at them, and nether attack internally from intense estrus and chemical erosion, many chimney stacks are now in need of a piddling TLC. There are a number of defects that can afflict old chimneys, just as scaffolding is a major office of the cost of repairs, it can make sense to have any roof works carried out at the same fourth dimension.

Check the flue

The airtightness of a flue is essential for the safe of the edifice and its occupants. Any grade of combustion may result in carbon monoxide, which has no smell but has the potential to kill.

Exam the flue using a smoke pellet, available from fireplace shops or plumbers' merchants.
If bug are suspected, call in a specialist to survey the flue internally using a video camera.
Consider having the chimney lined. Flexible stainless steel flue liners are recommended for older buildings as these cause minimal damage to the chimney and can be removed in the hereafter.
Remember that relining a flue must exist carried out in accordance with building regulations.

Deal with a leaking roof and chimney stack

Damp patches and brownish h2o stains on upstairs ceilings, chimney breasts and internal walls are commonly the result of leaks around the edges of chimney stacks where they encounter the roof. Victorian houses sometimes had flashings fabricated from cheaper zinc or just thick strips of mortar, which are prone to cracking.

Hither'south how to repair a leaking roof and chimney stack:

Durable, long-lasting lead is the best class of weatherproofing effectually these joints;
Defective junctions between stacks and roofs, or walls, should be stripped and covered with new lead flashings cutting into a stepped pattern, tucked into the mortar joints, and pointed up;
Avoid cheaper modern GRP (drinking glass-reinforced plastic), brusque-life tapes or cement strips;
Where flashings have come up loose they can be refixed into existing joints with fresh mortar, or a new stepped line cut into the side of the chimney and the flashing stock-still into the groove and sealed.

Dealing with damp penetration in chimney breasts

A small corporeality of rain entering an open up chimney pot is to exist expected and is normally harmless, soaking into the internal chimney brickwork. Originally the menstruation of hot air from fires below would facilitate evaporation, simply in disused flues rain can achieve farther down, where it mixes with old soot, potentially seeping through to the plasterwork.

Where flues have been protected with mod flue liners, rainwater that was previously soaked up may run direct downward the new liner forming puddles in the fireplace. Damp in fireplaces can also be caused by condensation from burning unseasoned logs.

How to forestall clammy in your chimney:

Check junctions betwixt the roof and the chimney to ensure flashing and mortar is audio;
Ensure back gutters behind chimneys are clear;
Consider fitting a raincap or cowl to the chimney to prevent rain entering the flue;
Chimneys serving inglenook fireplaces may be topped by flagstones raised on bricks;
Avert totally blocking an unused flue as rest ventilation is needed for it to remain dry out.

*Tall, thin chimney stacks are more prone to condensation forming in the flues*

Dealing with croaky or damaged brickwork or return

Exposed chimney masonry tin can erode, sometimes resulting in small patches of the brickwork outer confront dropping off. Rendered stacks are specially at take chances as small cracks tend to develop as the masonry repeatedly heats and cools, allowing water to penetrate and freeze, loosening the render.

Chemical erosion from acidic gases inside the flue is some other cause of impairment. Whatsoever resulting gaps in joints can let fumes to seep into the firm. This is particularly unsafe where gas fires have been installed in former fireplaces without kickoff fitting a flue liner, as they tin be a source of deadly carbon monoxide.

How to repair damaged chimney brickwork :

Cut out and supersede whatever severely damaged brick or stonework, although the odd 'spalled' brick isn't necessarily an issue;
Any badly eroded quondam mortar joints will need to be repointed;
In farthermost cases where neat or erosion is avant-garde enough to threaten structural problems, the stack will demand to be taken down and rebuilt using a suitable sulphate-resistant mortar;
Defective render can be hacked off and fabricated good with a fresh blanket;
Installing a flue liner should prevent erosion internally.

Fixing leaning and unstable chimneys

Information technology'southward not unusual for old chimneys to have a slight lean but in virtually cases they will still be stable. A structural engineer can confirm whether a lean is beyond adequate tolerances. The cause is commonly due to a combination of external wind pressure and persistent dampness and frost action on 1 side of the stack, exacerbated by chemical assault within the flue on the common cold side causing uneven motion.

Thinner chimneys built on outer walls are generally virtually at take chances. On rare occasions movement may be a result of incompetent structural alterations, such every bit removal of chimneybreasts or poorly undertaken loft conversions.

How to bargain with a leaning chimney:

Stacks tin can sometimes be stabilised with stainless-steel straps or traditional 'stay bars';
Where leaning is severe, at least partial rebuilding may exist necessary, or stacks may demand to be taken down to below roof level or entirely rebuilt;
To foreclose existing motion getting worse, strengthen the stack by repointing eroded mortar joints and installing a flue liner.

*Leaning stacks are not an unusual sight. Often these volition still exist stable, but seek the advice of a structural engineer if you lot are unsure nearly the safe of the chimney stack on your house*

Damaged pots and flaunching

Replacing a chimney pot

Where original chimney pots take been removed, it is usually possible to source replacements online, from salvage yards, or at garden centres, where they are often sold as outdoor ornaments.

Over fourth dimension the mortar flaunching at the base of the pots tin eventually start to crack and disintegrate. Despite the weight of the pots, there is a risk that tempest-forcefulness weather could so displace them. Using binoculars, look for signs of frost erosion and flaking, or cracks and damage on the surface of the pots.

Fixing a damaged chimney pot and flaunching:

Take down and supercede broken pots, if possible with matching reclaimed ones;
Secure unstable pots by repairing any damaged brickwork and flaunching, and besides check the condition of any Boob tube aerial fixings and, if possible, relocate them to the loft;
Cut out and replace any very loose flaunching.

How to bargain with thatched roofs and chimneys

Embers and sparks from chimneys forth with defects to the stack itself are a pregnant cause of thatch fires.

How to avoid thatch fires:

Take care lighting and tending fires or stoves;
Use only dry, well-seasoned wood and run at optimum temperature;
Ensure a chimney tiptop of at to the lowest degree one.8m (6ft) higher up the thatch;
Avert spark arrestors as they increase the take a chance of burn down if non properly maintained and cleaned;
Ensure flue liners are appropriate and check them regularly;
Maintain the chimney stack and fully overhaul brickwork exposed during rethatching.

Reducing draughts from open up fireplaces

Heat loss and draughts through flues when a chimney is non in use can be considerable. A number of products are at present available that can be temporarily fitted within the base of the flue. These come in various sizes and include chimney balloons, which are inflated with a pump, chimney umbrellas that open to cake the flue, and wool draught excluders that wedge into place. In all cases it is vital to remember to remove them before lighting a burn.

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Source: https://www.realhomes.com/advice/how-to-repair-a-chimney

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