We've recently moved into a 120 year old house and there are a few
mysteries that I would still like to get to the bottom of.

We have a chimney block that has 6 individual chimneys in it, which is
shared with next door. In our bedroom (actually on the ground floor)
there's an airbrick into a chimney that I thought was disused. That is
until our neighbour's boiler started up and I realise that there is a
flue running up the chimney for next door's boiler.

This wakes us up when it starts up at 5am! I've temporarily taped some
plywood over the vent and it makes a big difference to the noise. Do
you think it's a bad idea to permanently block up this vent? I assume
the chimney is sealed at the top, allowing only the boiler flue to
exit. I think this is the only vent into the chimney, and the only
other place it's possible to vent it would be in the lounge, which is
also undesirable.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks,
Dave.

On 17 Oct 2005 05:05:06 -0700, "Swift Half"
wrote:

We've recently moved into a 120 year old house and there are a few
mysteries that I would still like to get to the bottom of.

We have a chimney block that has 6 individual chimneys in it, which is
shared with next door. In our bedroom (actually on the ground floor)
there's an airbrick into a chimney that I thought was disused. That is
until our neighbour's boiler started up and I realise that there is a
flue running up the chimney for next door's boiler.

This wakes us up when it starts up at 5am! I've temporarily taped some
plywood over the vent and it makes a big difference to the noise. Do
you think it's a bad idea to permanently block up this vent? I assume
the chimney is sealed at the top, allowing only the boiler flue to
exit. I think this is the only vent into the chimney, and the only
other place it's possible to vent it would be in the lounge, which is
also undesirable.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks,
Dave.

Its normal to vent unused chinmeys top & bottom. I'd be suspisious
that sombody has broken the brickwork beween 2 of the vents.

Rick

Swift Half wrote:
We have a chimney block that has 6 individual chimneys in it, which is
shared with next door. In our bedroom (actually on the ground floor)
there's an airbrick into a chimney that I thought was disused. That is
until our neighbour's boiler started up and I realise that there is a
flue running up the chimney for next door's boiler.

I would venture to suggest that this is not acceptable. What would
happen, for instance, should you decide to install a fire?

On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:13:54 +0100, Chris Bacon
wrote:

Swift Half wrote:
We have a chimney block that has 6 individual chimneys in it, which is
shared with next door. In our bedroom (actually on the ground floor)
there's an airbrick into a chimney that I thought was disused. That is
until our neighbour's boiler started up and I realise that there is a
flue running up the chimney for next door's boiler.

I would venture to suggest that this is not acceptable. What would
happen, for instance, should you decide to install a fire?

What I would expect to find is 6 vents up one chinmey brest. each vent
should be sealed from each of the others, else you'd get smoke come
out upstaris when you light a fire downstairs. I would also expect to
find that the boiler has a metal flue liner.

I suspect that this is not what you will find in this case.

Rick

Rick wrote:
What I would expect to find is 6 vents up one chinmey brest. each vent
should be sealed from each of the others, else you'd get smoke come
out upstaris when you light a fire downstairs. I would also expect to
find that the boiler has a metal flue liner.

I suspect that this is not what you will find in this case.

I would be very entertained to find out what the OP has
got here!

Chris Bacon wrote:
Rick wrote:
What I would expect to find is 6 vents up one chinmey brest. each vent
should be sealed from each of the others, else you'd get smoke come
out upstaris when you light a fire downstairs. I would also expect to
find that the boiler has a metal flue liner.

I suspect that this is not what you will find in this case.

I would be very entertained to find out what the OP has
got here!

OK. Let me explain a little more.....

The house was once a large Victorian manor house that has been
converted into 4 houses. The chimney breast in question is the one that
used to service the old kitchen, and it's shared between us & next
door. It has 6 vents, all sealed from each other. Only 4 of these are
in use (one for our boiler, one for next door's, one for our woodburner
and one for next door's). The boilers are both in the same 'boiler
room' which is adjacent to our bedroom.

At one time the 2 boiler flues used to go into the same chimney vent
but a few years ago, before we moved in, someone spotted this and
decided it was a bad idea so they moved next door's into a vacant vent.

I'm pretty sure that a chimney liner was installed at this time - you
can see it through the airbrick.

I assume that the airbrick is still necessary though to avoid the build
up of moisture.

On 17 Oct 2005 06:53:56 -0700, "Swift Half"
wrote:


Chris Bacon wrote:
Rick wrote:
What I would expect to find is 6 vents up one chinmey brest. each vent
should be sealed from each of the others, else you'd get smoke come
out upstaris when you light a fire downstairs. I would also expect to
find that the boiler has a metal flue liner.

I suspect that this is not what you will find in this case.

I would be very entertained to find out what the OP has
got here!

OK. Let me explain a little more.....

The house was once a large Victorian manor house that has been
converted into 4 houses. The chimney breast in question is the one that
used to service the old kitchen, and it's shared between us & next
door. It has 6 vents, all sealed from each other. Only 4 of these are
in use (one for our boiler, one for next door's, one for our woodburner
and one for next door's). The boilers are both in the same 'boiler
room' which is adjacent to our bedroom.

At one time the 2 boiler flues used to go into the same chimney vent
but a few years ago, before we moved in, someone spotted this and
decided it was a bad idea so they moved next door's into a vacant vent.

I'm pretty sure that a chimney liner was installed at this time - you
can see it through the airbrick.

I assume that the airbrick is still necessary though to avoid the build
up of moisture.

Lets guess, the spare vent, is the one in your bedroom ? of is the
vent in your bedroom open to the boiler room somehow ?

Rick

Lets guess, the spare vent, is the one in your bedroom ? of is the
vent in your bedroom open to the boiler room somehow ?

The vent in the bedroom has next door's boiler's flue running up it.
This is the right-most vent as you look from our house. The middle one
has our boiler's flue and the left-most one has our woodburner. Our
boiler's flue enters the chimney higher up than next door's, so I
assume next door's flue runs horizontally through the middle vent to
get to the right-most one. I can only assume they've fixed up the
brickwork to keep the vents separated!

On 17 Oct 2005 07:44:51 -0700, "Swift Half"
wrote:

Lets guess, the spare vent, is the one in your bedroom ? of is the
vent in your bedroom open to the boiler room somehow ?

The vent in the bedroom has next door's boiler's flue running up it.
This is the right-most vent as you look from our house. The middle one
has our boiler's flue and the left-most one has our woodburner. Our
boiler's flue enters the chimney higher up than next door's, so I
assume next door's flue runs horizontally through the middle vent to
get to the right-most one. I can only assume they've fixed up the
brickwork to keep the vents separated!

Now you know what the problem is, how do you fix it ?

I would think that next door should have their flue up their own vent,
unless there is an agreement in the deeds of the house.

Now this is IMHO a problem the vendor should have discolsed, and I
would imagine that a chat with your solicitor would be in order. In
any case the survey IMHO should have found this.

Rick