smoke leaking into neighbors house.

Sandwich84

I have something of a problem with my chimney stack.

I recently bought a late 1800's property with a gas fire which I removed and replaced with an open wood fire. Had a chimney sweep check it before I started to use it in october and he said it was fine, in fact he had seen far worse running with no problems.

3 months later, after regular use during the cold spell, my neighbor (the house is terraced and we share a chimney) gives a knock on my door to tell me his house is full of smoke!

We obviously have a hole somewhere but how do I go about finding and fixing it? do I have to now get it lined (and is this as expensive as I think it is?)?

Any help here would be greatly appreciated

ukmaggie45

Sounds like the feathers have gone on your chimney. We had similar prob when renting a house while out of our home for work to be done on it back in the 80s. We lit fire in front living room, and the bedroom above filled with smoke. Sorry can't help with a fix, but possibly your neighbour has had a lucky escape, as if your (ex) gas fire ever started malfunctioning he'd never have smelled the CO produced. At least you both now know there's some sort of problem.

welda

Few year back I had a friend who had a similar predicament. I was asked for help to source the problem, at this particular time I had CCTV equipment that I used for underwater work. I dropped cam down chimney till I reached chimney breach, which was was in a position too far down and, too far up for an easy fix, in fact I doubt a fix was viable?

I eventually fabbed up a square to round to fit up chimney at fire side end, I installed a spiggot at round part, which was upper most in chimney, then a liner was installed.

Drop video cam had various cables, with one cable plugged into a monitor, this allowed me to view chimney condition. My friend did contact a local sweep, unfortunately sweep did have the gear to do a proper inspection.

Remember tho, chimney is shared, so any remedial work costs I imagine would be shared, maybe worth checking out title deeds just in case?

:beer:

Sandwich84

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Sounds like the feathers have gone on your chimney. We had similar prob when renting a house while out of our home for work to be done on it back in the 80s. We lit fire in front living room, and the bedroom above filled with smoke. Sorry can't help with a fix, but possibly your neighbour has had a lucky escape, as if your (ex) gas fire ever started malfunctioning he'd never have smelled the CO produced. At least you both now know there's some sort of problem.

now that is a scary prospect, I guess I'm gonna have to line it but I will get a proper trades person in to give me the lowdown.

ormus

all depends where the breach is.
when i removed my gas fire and back boiler, i could see light from next doors living room!
a bit of fire cement cured that problem.
then i skimmed the whole fire grate in new mortar/plaster.

gas4you

I would start at the point it is coming into the neighbours house and work back from there.

It sounds as though there may be a common problem to both house (chimneys) otherwise the smoke couldn't get through to him.

doningtonphil

We had a multifuel stove installed after knocking out our fireplace. We had a chimney sweep say 'yeah its fine' as when he swept it there was hardly any debris fell down. The main issue id that originally the chimney would have a had a lime render inside. More often than not this has disintegrated over time.

It may be that you have a shared dhimney stack but you will notice you each have your own chimney pot (likely 2 each, one for upstairs and one for downstairs)

It sounds like your neighbour has had a lucky escape because unless your gas fire exhaust gases went up the chimney inside a flue they are likely to have been getting into his property just as your smoke has (except he could see the smoke).

A friend installed his own log burner without thoroughly checking his chimney. Last winter, in the loft part of the chimney, black tar was seeping through the mortar of the chimney. The chimney was too cold so the gases were condensing before leaving the top of the chimney (I dont think the recently cut leylandii he was burning helped either).

A smoke bomb test is pointless as it in no way replicates the volujme and pressure of smoke generatged by a real fire. THe only sure way of checking for leaks is to pressure test it.

We had our chimney lined with a flexible steel liner with the void filled with insulation. It generally cost about a grand to have done. We are glad we have had it done and our stove has been fantastic this winter.