I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal.
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

"mary" wrote in message
...
I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal.
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress. I used these caps (about £20 each incl p&p) and they
were very effective and easy to fit (once up there!).

http://www.fluesystems.com/cowls/info/ccap.htm

You might be able to make something similar.
--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

On 2 Apr, 16:01, "Bob Mannix" wrote:
"mary" wrote in message

...

I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal.
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with *a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress. I used these caps (about £20 each incl p&p) and they
were very effective and easy to fit (once up there!).

http://www.fluesystems.com/cowls/info/ccap.htm

You might be able to make something similar.
--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

thanks.
Yes they do seem quite reasonably priced.However they just go up to
11" diameter whereas mine are 13"
At present I have these chimneys capped with folded round and tied
lead but I think that is the cause of the brown staining I have on the
interior plaster below so I have to come up with something new that
will allow ventilation and prevent the rain coming in at the same
time...

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 08:30:18 -0700 (PDT), mary
wrote:

On 2 Apr, 16:01, "Bob Mannix" wrote:
"mary" wrote in message

...

I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal.
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with *a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress. I used these caps (about £20 each incl p&p) and they
were very effective and easy to fit (once up there!).

http://www.fluesystems.com/cowls/info/ccap.htm

You might be able to make something similar.
--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

thanks.
Yes they do seem quite reasonably priced.However they just go up to
11" diameter whereas mine are 13"
At present I have these chimneys capped with folded round and tied
lead but I think that is the cause of the brown staining I have on the
interior plaster below so I have to come up with something new that
will allow ventilation and prevent the rain coming in at the same
time...

13" Chimney Pots ??? I take it you live in a big hoose? !!!

In article ,
mary writes:
On 2 Apr, 16:01, "Bob Mannix" wrote:
"mary" wrote in message

...

I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal.
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with *a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress. I used these caps (about £20 each incl p&p) and they
were very effective and easy to fit (once up there!).

http://www.fluesystems.com/cowls/info/ccap.htm

You might be able to make something similar.
--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)
thanks.
Yes they do seem quite reasonably priced.However they just go up to
11" diameter whereas mine are 13"
At present I have these chimneys capped with folded round and tied
lead but I think that is the cause of the brown staining I have on the
interior plaster below so I have to come up with something new that
will allow ventilation and prevent the rain coming in at the same
time...

It's better to leave the chimney uncapped, than to cap it without
ventilation. You need ventilation top and bottom, to ensure a
through air current. If the chimney is on an outside wall and the
fireplace is closed up, I would recommend ventilating it to the
outside at the bottom, as that will avoid it drawing warm air out
of the house.

One of mine was capped off at the top without any top ventilation.
20 years later, I found it was teaming with condensation running
down inside. It hadn't shown up on the walls, because it had caused
the plaster to come away from the damp brickwork, making a moisture
barrier gap. I noticed when I went to strip the wallpaper and found
the whole chimney breast seemed to be moving, but it was actually
just the detached plaster. I went into the loft and carefully cut
out half a brick into the right flue. It was already vented at the
bottom, but that alone gives no air flow. Within a couple of days
of making the top vent, the surface water inside the flue had gone,
but it took another 3 months for the brickwork to dry out. This
was about 7 years ago, and it's been fine since then. Actually,
the flue was very handy for routing aerial cables down from the
loft into the dining room.

All the other flues are not capped at the top, and have never had
any damp problem. The airflow through the flue easily copes with
drying out the rain which goes into the top. Without airflow, a
flue will gradually become saturated with condensation.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 2 Apr, 17:31, (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:
In article ,
* * * * mary writes:





On 2 Apr, 16:01, "Bob Mannix" wrote:
"mary" wrote in message

....

I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal..
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with *a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress. I used these caps (about £20 each incl p&p) and they
were very effective and easy to fit (once up there!).

http://www.fluesystems.com/cowls/info/ccap.htm

You might be able to make something similar.
--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)
thanks.
Yes they do seem quite reasonably priced.However they just go up to
11" diameter whereas mine are 13"
At present I have these chimneys capped with folded round *and tied
lead but I think that is the cause of the brown staining I have on the
interior plaster below so I have to come up with something new that
will allow ventilation and prevent the rain coming in at the same
time...

It's better to leave the chimney uncapped, than to cap it without
ventilation. You need ventilation top and bottom, to ensure a
through air current. If the chimney is on an outside wall and the
fireplace is closed up, I would recommend ventilating it to the
outside at the bottom, as that will avoid it drawing warm air out
of the house.

One of mine was capped off at the top without any top ventilation.
20 years later, I found it was teaming with condensation running
down inside. It hadn't shown up on the walls, because it had caused
the plaster to come away from the damp brickwork, making a moisture
barrier gap. I noticed when I went to strip the wallpaper and found
the whole chimney breast seemed to be moving, but it was actually
just the detached plaster. I went into the loft and carefully cut
out half a brick into the right flue. It was already vented at the
bottom, but that alone gives no air flow. Within a couple of days
of making the top vent, the surface water inside the flue had gone,
but it took another 3 months for the brickwork to dry out. This
was about 7 years ago, and it's been fine since then. Actually,
the flue was very handy for routing aerial cables down from the
loft into the dining room.

All the other flues are not capped at the top, and have never had
any damp problem. The airflow through the flue easily copes with
drying out the rain which goes into the top. Without airflow, a
flue will gradually become saturated with condensation.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes it is a big old house and there are five of the chimneys with 13"
diameters.
I don't feel I can uncap them even though they seem to be badly capped
as we get so much rainfall on the West Coast of Ireland.(also there is
no damp course)
So I really need to recap them properly but it seems that I may need
to improvise if I can't buy a cowl that will fit.
Also I have noticed that there are more chimneys than actual
fireplaces .So that presumably means that that there are some
fireplaces in rooms that were blocked before I came here.,
Am I going to be obliged to investigate ? It seems an awful job to do
that....

On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:01:33 +0100, Bob Mannix wrote:
Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress.

In our case it was a (slightly) live duck found at the bottom. No idea how
long it had been there - we all thought we were hearing things!

Jules wrote:
On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:01:33 +0100, Bob Mannix wrote:
Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress.

In our case it was a (slightly) live duck found at the bottom. No idea how
long it had been there - we all thought we were hearing things!


Round here they use ridge tiles, but I guess they're not big enough

On 2 Apr, 19:16, Stuart Noble wrote:
Jules wrote:
On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:01:33 +0100, Bob Mannix wrote:
Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to stop water
and livestock ingress.

In our case it was a (slightly) live duck found at the bottom. No idea how
long it had been there - we all thought we were hearing things!

Round here they use ridge tiles, but I guess they're not big enough

how do you suppose they might fix them? Cement?

mary wrote:
On 2 Apr, 19:16, Stuart Noble wrote:
Jules wrote:
On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:01:33 +0100, Bob Mannix wrote:
Well you can do what you like - after all, you are only trying to
stop water and livestock ingress.

In our case it was a (slightly) live duck found at the bottom. No
idea how long it had been there - we all thought we were hearing
things!

Round here they use ridge tiles, but I guess they're not big enough

how do you suppose they might fix them? Cement?

I only looked for a few weeks last year when we were doing/getting done
our chimneys* but I only saw ridge tiles use where the pots had been
removed. I easily could be wrong though. And if the pots are removed
then ordinary terracotta flue vents could be used for around £20 a pop.
May spoil the look of the house though: 14 inch pots sound gorgeous.
Photos coming?

*Not all DIY despite scaffolding being up as I didn't fancy balancing
the ladder on the ridge the way the roofers did for the main stack.
--
Robin

mary coughed up some electrons that declared:

I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal.
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

No, you want some free ventilation - you need a slight draught up from the
fireplace (or it's vent if bricked up) to prevent damp.

Here you go:

http://www.hotline-chimneys.co.uk/pr...recnumber=1141

15 quid and simple to fit (assuming you don't mind going up top)

Cheers

Tim

In fact, now I've seen that, might get a couple for my chimneys!

On 2 Apr, 20:07, Tim S wrote:
mary coughed up some electrons that declared:

I need to cap a few chimneys (the ones I don't use ,maybe 5 or 6)
They are just plain ceramic cylyndric chimney pots about 14" say in
diameter.
I don't think I can afford to buy cowls although they night be ideal.
So is there a cheap way to cap them which would also allow them to
breathe enough?
Would breathable material do the trick (gortex etc) ?
Or could I cover them with *a slate at an angle but without them
catching the wind and coming off?

No, you want some free ventilation - you need a slight draught up from the
fireplace (or it's vent if bricked up) to prevent damp.

Here you go:

http://www.hotline-chimneys.co.uk/pr...recnumber=1141

15 quid and simple to fit (assuming you don't mind going up top)

Cheers

Tim

In fact, now I've seen that, might get a couple for my chimneys!

shame it is too small.My chimney pot diameter is 13" and they go up to
10".

mary coughed up some electrons that declared:


shame it is too small.My chimney pot diameter is 13" and they go up to
10".

Sorry - I missed the bit about your pot being so big.

I'm sure if you google long enough, you should be able find a suitable part.

(Sometimes, I've had to google on and off for a week to find something
obscure - but, more often than not, someone makes the thing you're after).

I started with "stainless cowl", thinking that, as you'd fit a stainless
cowl to the top of a chimney liner for a log stove (something I'll be doing
later), then maybe you could just glue the cowl on, without the liner. I
didn't realise that they actually made variants just for capping off.

That leads onto another line of attack - try a local log stove shop (that
fits them), because they might just have something suitable, plus they have
the knowledge on site.

Cheers

Tim

On Apr 2, 10:46*pm, Tim S wrote:
mary coughed up some electrons that declared:

shame it is too small.My chimney pot diameter is 13" and they go up to
10".

Sorry - I missed the bit about your pot being so big.

I'm sure if you google long enough, you should be able find a suitable part.