How to check my chimney

hermum

Could anyone tell me how to check that my chimney is ok for use with an open fire?
It's an old house, at some time someone's had a gas fire in the fireplace.
I have a lot of problems with damp so am thinking that an open fire would be best to help with the damp problem & last year I couldn't get the open plan lounge above 13.5 despite putting heavy curtains up to cut the lounge off from the hallway & stairs. Oh and putting £60 a week on the gas, come January I admitted defeat & went through the rest of the winter with no heating.
I know that the chimney will need to be swept before a fire is lit but I don't know how to check to see if it needs relining, which I won't be able to afford.
Thanks for any advice.

googler

Look up it with the aid of a mirror if necessary, and see if there's a flexible metal liner still threre from when the gas fire was being used. This will need to be removed before you use a real fire.

It'll need to be swept - maybe, but just call the sweep anyway, and get them to look over it and give you their opinion. Who else would check it?

Jonesya

Personally I wouldn't go for an open fire (gas or solid fuel) - they look nice but the efficiency is awful, unless you can get very cheap/free fuel I'd have thought a stove or a high effiency inset gas fire would be cheaper to run.

suisidevw

OP, just get it swept, see what they say and that may be all you need to go ahead with open fire. As said, they aren't efficient but as you wouldn't be able to afford to line etc a stove is out of the equation. An open fire will still give a nice 'ambience'! Good luck

aboard_epsilon

you could have an enclosed fire ..most of them these days have efficiencies of plus 75 percent.

must be a huge house if it took £60 a week to heat .

bet your house is stuck on top of a hill or something.

all the best.mark

paulsad

You can use a "smoke bomb" - sounds scary but they aren't - basically you light one of these in the hearth and see that the smoke is being drawn up and out of the chimney stack - available from plumbing/heating suppliers - or get a gas engineer to do it. You will need your gas supply pipe shifting if it goes into the fireplace obviously as well - we have one in ours. I'm thinking of utilising one of our open fireplaces like you also.

ormus

use a smoke bomb, or just light a very small smoky fire.
then go outside and check the chimney.

remove all pets and babies just in case.

Ben84

Open fires are terribly inefficient, which is largely why people have been blocking them up and replacing them with gas fires and back boilers. Open fires deliver radiant heat in to the room, so are nice to sit around, but they also suck huge amounts of air up the chimney, pulling in cold replacement air from outside. Lighting an open fire in a house with the central heating on is not good, the efficiency can be negative! Solid fuel is also likely to be more expensive per Kw of energy than gas, and it is messier and requires storage somewhere.

Unfortunately, I don't think an open fire is going to help with the cost of heating. If you already have gas available, a high efficiency radiant fire is a good choice. Mine costs about 5p an hour on the low setting - which actually puts out plenty of heat, most of which does go in to the house rather than up the chimney. We can spend the evening in the sitting room, even in very cold weather, very comfortably with the gas fire lit for not too much expense. I usually light it around 6 and go to bed about 11, so it's only about 30p a day.

hermum

Hi, thanks all for your replies. I did wonder if a smoke bomb would be sufficient to check that the chimney's drawing properly.
I know that open fires aren't that efficient but when I had an open fire in a previous house it was too warm, that would be nice.
I would love a stove but, a, can't afford it, b, don't really want to lose the look of the original fireplace.
The house is a small 2 up 2 down victorian end terrace. It has high ceilings and a previous owner has removed the wall between the lounge & hallway so the landing gets lovely & warm, unfortunately it's too small to sit on.
I put heavy velvet curtains up to try & keep the heat in the sitting room but it didn't work that well. I also covered the door with a curtain, that comes into the sitting room.
I think that one of the major problems is the damp, I can't afford to get it re-rendered so even on damp summer days the lounge has a chill, the front of the house gets no sun.
I've also got exposed floorboards, the wind fair whistles up through despite a large rug.
Maybe I'll just have to use the kitchen until I can afford to get the work done.

Mankysteve

Check your house insurance there may be a clause about getting a chimney properly checked before using a open fire. Speak to a professional, but as other said open fire are very inefficient.