In article ,
"Mikey" writes:
I've had a chimney breast removed on 2 floors of my house by a builder,
we've had to leave the chimney stack in place as it's a conservation area so
have supported the stack with RSJs. The builder hasn't patched up the
ceiling yet so when I look up I can see daylight through both chimney pots.
What is normal practice after removing chimney breasts, should I ask the
builder to put cowls on the chimney to stop the rain dropping in?

That's probably a good idea as in this case it would directly wet the
ceiling. However, the flues _must_ remain vented top _and_ bottom,
which might mean fitting airbricks through the brickwork near the
top if he caps off the tops of the pots. (I did mine by cutting out
half a brick in the loft though to the flue.) If there's only a few
feet of flue left, then you can probably get away with ventilating
from just one end. Probably not relevant to you, but if possible,
avoid venting from a room, as it will draw heat out of the room in
winter (when doing heat-loss calculations, you should allow up to
a kW lost up a vented flue).

--
Andrew Gabriel