On Mon, 06 Jun 2005 03:16:33 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

I had a whole chimney (completely unrendered) sitting in wet clay, and
it sucked water up and rotted anything it touched.

Rising damp is a fact, and your religion will not make it go away.

Hi,

What might have been a factor is soot deposits in the chimney
containing hygroscopic salts. Had a quick search and found an
interesting post:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.pyrotechnics/msg/3a3fb2069864801a?hl=en

Maybe if it only occurs with wood soot it would explain why loads of
vic houses in London built on clay don't suffer damp chimneys in the
same way.

In any case, lime mortar can be quite porous so even if the bricks
don't suck up damp the mortar might do, though porosity isn't
necessarily the same as absorbency.

BTW what wood were the sole plates of the old house made out of?

cheers,
Pete.