How Much Does It Cost To Repair A Chimney Damper
Opening up a fireplace has to be 1 of the best ways to add grapheme, charm and value to a catamenia belongings — after all, an open burn down is high on many people's wish lists.
However, before you take a sledgehammer to what you lot believe to be a blocked upward chimney or burn down opening you lot should first ensure you familiarise yourself with the associated Building Regs, costs and how to do it safely to brand sure yous don't end upwardly with a whole lot of mess.
In some cases, opening up a fireplace could involve little more than prising off a sheet of one-time hardboard to reveal a hidden gem. Only even if you don't find a long-forgotten marble masterpiece behind, there'southward still enough you lot can do to create a captivating focal point.
Is Planning Permission Needed When Opening up a Fireplace?
When information technology comes to getting planning permission, unless the building is listed, you shouldn't normally need to worry.
However, because of the potential risks from fire and toxic fumes, even if you're only installing a stove in an existing fireplace or lining a flue, the work will need to comply with Edifice Regulations (Part J deals with combustion appliances). And, whatever structural alterations, such as removal of a chimney breast, will also need to comply.
Which Edifice Regs Relate to Opening Upward a Fireplace?
The provision of a sufficient amount of oxygen, both for occupants and for the combustion of fires or appliances is a central part of compliance with current Edifice Regulations. This might require vents to exist fitted close to the burn down.
In timber floors,vents tin can exist inserted into the floorboards so that the burn draws air from under the floor (rather than creating a draught under the living room door), which has the beneficial side effect of enhancing subfloor ventilation. Alternatively, vents are sometimes placed on outside walls only above the skirting. Redundant flues also need to be ventilated to prevent staining to chimney breasts caused by moist air condensing within the flue.
If required, anew gas supply can be piped to the fireplace under a timber flooring or via copper pipe (usually 22mm) run externally and clipped to the outside wall surface. But when it comes to the installation of gas appliances, by law this chore must but exist carried out by a Gas Condom-registered engineer.
As 'competent persons', approved installers can 'self-certify' that piece of work has been carried out in compliance with Building Regulations and issue completion certificates. HETAS is the equivalent trunk forsolid fuel-called-for appliances.
How Much Does information technology Price to Open up Up a Fireplace?
This will very much depend on how your original fireplace was boarded upwardly. Very occasionally part of the old environs or insert volition remain. More unremarkably it will accept been completely removed and the opening either boarded or bricked up.
If the opening is boarded upwardly it will be easier, quicker and cheaper to reveal than one that has been bricked and plastered over.
Equally a rough guide, a new flue liner measuring six meters costs between £150-£250 depending on the quality and supplier. Usually on ane or two are required.
Knocking out a fireplace will ordinarily have around half to a full day, whilst sweeping and installing the lining could accept another. The average day rate for a tradesperson to do this job would exist effectually £150-£250.
How to Open up up an Onetime Fireplace
Before getting down to work it'south advisable to play safety and cover everything in sight considering there is a potential that astounding volumes of soot and dust will be generated when opening up a fireplace — engulfing nearby furnishings, persons and pets in a thick, black miasma.
It's too worth begetting in mind likewise that the vibration from builders' Kango breakers can be very constructive at rearranging the neighbor's ornaments on the other side of a party wall. So a bolster and society hammer is probably a meliorate choice for localised demolition where erstwhile fireplaces have been bricked up. Having exposed the original 'builder's opening', large deposits of accumulated soot and rubble will likely need to be removed before the chimney can be swept and the flue lined.
In most properties built in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the opening volition be spanned by a load-bearing brick arch supported on a curved steel former. Exposed brickwork tin can look very highly-seasoned, only if the size of the opening needs to exist altered, a concrete lintel can be inserted and the masonry plastered over.
Whatever your taste in fires, once yous take a clean opening and a freshly swept flue, the next job is normally to upgrade the hearth, traditionally made from physical set flush into the floor void. To comply with Building Regulations this volition demand to be raised above floor level; it's a elementary chore to form a new one directly on top from in-situ physical, or you might opt for a marble or slate hearth.
The new burn surround will stand up on superlative of the hearth, screwed to the wall via pocket-sized side lugs which can be inset into the wall and plastered over. Finally, if your preference is for a traditional Victorian cast iron insert, this tin can now be positioned centrally, secured by a mass of weak concrete placed behind it.
What Way of Fireplace is Right For Me?
After some fireplace design ideas? The manner of fireplace you lot opt for really will depend on the age of the holding and the overall look you lot're aiming to create. A big inglenook might be perfect for a woodburning stove, for example.
Chimney breasts have up a fair amount of space. So in smaller houses with cramped layouts it can exist tempting to remove a redundant chimney breast, possibly towards the rear of the property in a kitchen or bath. Notwithstanding, where a previous possessor has already taken out a chimney breast and you want to open up a fireplace, it should exist possible to rebuild it without costs escalating (bold the stack is still in place).
Alternatively, it might be simpler to install an apparatus designed to operate via a flue driven through an outside wall.
How is a Flue Installed?
Enclosed by the chimney breast and stack masonry, flues are designed to safely disperse fume and combustion gases. Often multiple flues are accommodated inside a single chimney with thin internal partitions. Before a fire can be used, in most cases the flue volition need to be lined. In older backdrop, flues were lime rendered internally (known as 'parging'), but over the years this tin can come loose and mortar joints can erode, assuasive fume and fumes to sally in an adjacent flue or room.
Lining typically involves inserting a flexible steel tube downwards from the top — a job which tin can crave scaffolding, adding to the cost of the task. The blazon and diameter of the flue liner, and the cowl or terminal, are both specific to individual appliances and fires and are specified past the manufacturer and/or installer.
Troubleshooting When Opening Upward a Fireplace
If you spot damp patches and staining on your chimney breasts or the walls effectually your fireplaces you are looking at signs of underlying damp problems. The two main causes of clammy (other than leaks at roof flashings) arerainwater coming down chimney pots andcondensation.
Burning fuel produces water vapour which turns to moisture when it hits common cold surfaces, particularly if the stack is particularly tall or located on a cold outer wall. Fuels such every bit freshly cutting timber are particularly wet and give off a lot of water vapour. Once mixed with soot the moisture can drain through the plasterwork leaving ugly stains.
In older backdrop, the stack walls were built without adamp-proof grade (DPC), and eroded mortar joints tin allow damp to penetrate downwardly through porous masonry. To prevent this, modern stacks take a DPC through the chimney at approximately 150mm above the roof and another nearly the head.
Condensation inside the stack can usually exist resolved pastinstalling a suitable flue liner. But this can sometimes atomic number 82 to problems where pots and flues are exposed to pelting, considering rather than being absorbed into the masonry, the rainwater may be channelled straight down the 'chute' forming puddles in the fireplace.
To exclude the entry of pelting there'due south a broad variety ofcaps, cowls, and hoods available to protect pots and flues. Even if redundant fireplaces are sealed upward and you lot don't want to use them, in that location should be acatamenia of air to prevent condensation with pots hooded or capped, and airbricks inserted in the stack wall.
Where damp is seeping down through porous chimney masonry,repointing the brickwork joints can sometimes solve the trouble, or new larger flashings can exist fitted that extend higher up and deeper into the brickwork.
You've opened up a fireplace but to discover smoke doesn't go up the chimney but instead blows into the room – or perchance you lot notice that the fire becomes choked and struggles to burn. What to do?
Fireplaces rely on the principle that warm air rises. A regularly used flue helps keep the escaping smoke warm, aiding its ascendance.
- Some chimneys are simply too cold to depict well, peculiarly those on outside walls.
- A stack that is too short or overshadowed by high buildings or trees tin can result in a downdraught with the smoke blowing back down.
- Flues that are also large tin can cause smokiness because it takes a long time for them to get warm enough to help the smoke rise.
- Flues that are also small can asphyxiate the fire.
Probably the most common cause of smoky fires is a lack of air, particularly in houses wheredraughts have been sealed upwards. Smoke can also become trapped because there's something blocking the flue — indeed anything which obstructs the menses of fume and combustion gases, such equally a badly fitted pot, can be a trouble. Although there are multiple possible causes of smoky fires, sometimes the problem can even be down to a temporary alter in wind direction distorting air pressure.
How to Fix a Smoking Burn
- Air starvation can exist cured by boosting air supply past installing (closable) vents or an underfloor grille near the fire
- Flues that are too large tin can be modified with a suitable flue liner, and a 'throat restrictor' can be fitted to narrow the entry zone from the fireplace
- Smoke will disperse more efficiently where internal flue walls are smooth, once lined
- To clear blockages – debris, soot, nests, etc. – ensure that the chimney has been swept
- To solve downdraughts, a special draught-inducing cowl or circular deflector can be fitted, or the height of the flue raised with a pot extender.
Smoke Fumes are Leaking into Other Rooms — What Should I Do?
A blocked flue can divert smoke and fumes into bordering rooms or side by side flues. Smoke leakage and fumes may cause drowsiness, and at that place are potentially very serious dangers from breathing inpoisonous fumes and from the risk of fire. Gas or oil-fired appliances are particularly prone to producing deadly, odourlesscarbon monoxide, also.
Expect for signs ofbird ingress and blockage such equally feathers, sticks, harbinger and large amounts of soot in the grate. To prevent blockages acquired by bird access and nests, unprotected chimney pots can exist fitted withbird guards.
Gas and oil appliances need special chimney-superlative terminals to prevent blockage and to help disperse gases, too.
Gaps may have also formed where mortar joints have been eroded over time by acidic chemicals from combustion gases. Leaks can sometimes get undetected, particularly within lofts or to adjoining houses. Theairtightness of a flue can betested using smoke pellets (bachelor from DIY stores). Where possible, leaky mortar joints should be made adept prior to lining the flue. But even where a flue is already lined, old steel liners eventually suffer from corrosion.
It'south essential that flue liners are of the right type for the burn or appliance. Flexiblesingle-skinned liners are used mainly for gas fires andoil or gas-fired boilers, whereas hardierdouble-skinned liners are required forburning solid fuels (i.eastward. for woodburners).
How to Forbid Chimney Fires
Fires in flues tin can burn unnoticed until structural damage is caused or fire spreads to the master business firm. Symptoms include excessivelyhot chimney breasts and theodor of burning.
Over time, soot and tar can build up inside flues and may eventually ignite causing hidden chimney fires that are hard to extinguish. A chimney fire can burn at over i,000°C, causing metallic liners to collapse. This is more than common where the fuel existence burnt is dark-green, unseasoned timber as it generates excessive tar. But soot deposits tin also exist a result of inefficient combustion caused by poor air supply.
Flues need to beswept annually to remove combustible soot deposits and blockages. Cull a sweeper who'southward National Clan of Chimney Sweeps (NACS) or HETAS canonical and ideally likewise a member of the Guild of Master Sweeps.
Wood and peat are particularly aggressive fuels and can produce a rapid build-up of tar and resinous deposits on the inside of the flue. But sweeping flexible flue liners can exist difficult, so one trick of the trade is to occasionally burn smokeless fuel in a very hot fire which, it is claimed, melts the deposit abroad.
Source: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/opening-up-a-fireplace
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