Chimneys and fireplaces are a relic of a bygone period, a time once we needed to burn in our houses to maintain heat. Few of us want to do this today, now they carry out very completely different features; visible stimulation, which isn’t enchanted by a dancing flame; the pleasing pastime of chopping and stacking wooden they usually create an environment that’s onerous to beat. I ought to use the phrase Hygge at this level…however I am not attempting!
I like an open fireplace or a wooden burning range, with out their basic points I would be very a lot in favor, however they’re very problematic and that is why I am not. There are inefficiencies in the best way they burn gasoline and infrequently result in overheating one room whereas not heating the remainder. A extra urgent drawback is air high quality. Even trendy eco-wood stoves produce greater than 750 instances extra air air pollution from small particles than a contemporary truck. They triple the extent of dangerous air pollution in houses and infrequently create low-oxygen environments. It is actually boring, however sadly burning wooden and coal is not good for the surroundings, or for you.
(Picture credit score: Future PLC/Colin Poole)
In the event you simply poured your self a glass of wine, lit the range and sat right down to learn your favourite journal…sorry that was a little bit of a temper killer…however I believe fires in our houses will grow to be a wierd reminiscence inside a era can be . Even when this weren’t true, fireplaces as the principle supply of heating for a house are a factor of the previous. Who has time to set, mild, feed and clear three or 4 fireplaces each winter evening? It could be a full time job! Nevertheless, about 60% of UK houses have been constructed earlier than the 1956 Clear Air Act and have a number of fireplaces and chimneys.
It is solely when fireplaces are in use that there are issues, even when they are not problematic. In buildings the stack impact used to dissipate undesirable warmth. This explains how sizzling air rises from the constructing and attracts in cooler air at a low stage. Chimneys are optimized for this, which is why open fires are drafty and permit big quantities of your valuable, costly warmth to rise and depart your house.
(Picture credit score: Future PLC/James French)
Wooden stoves do the identical, albeit to a lesser extent, when the within of your house is hotter than the surface. Even capped chimneys do this; the closed physique of air is consistently churning, taking your valuable warmth up above the insulation layer in your roof the place it cools and falls again down to get replaced by hotter air from under. Moisture on this air condenses on the coldest a part of the construction after which drips down the chimney into your house, not good.
This isn’t the one manner warmth is misplaced by way of chimneys. They’re often made of huge chunks of masonry that run out from the within, which means warmth is consistently being transferred by way of the brick or stone by way of your attic insulation. They’re additionally a comfortable spot in waterproofing a roof…..I might go on, however I suppose you get the purpose by now. On listed and historic buildings, chimneys are essential for his or her aesthetics, however typically I feel most chimneys ought to go!
(Picture credit score: Future PLC/Dominic Blackmore)
So what do you have to know to take away them? First, there may be the telephone variety of a structural engineer. Chimneys are sometimes structural, so any modifications have to be executed accurately. Eradicating the construction from below any remaining chimney above it would place an asymmetrical load on the wall and require a specifically designed assist. In the event you depart the stays of a chimney in place, as soon as it’s structurally safe the highest and backside have to be fastidiously coated, whereas permitting the trapped air inside to be vented. To do that, place an air stone or vent within the chimney roughly 600mm above the joists within the attic. Use this gap to fill the flue with vermiculite, polystyrene granules or a LECA kind insulation that may be poured. Lastly, ensure your attic insulation runs 600mm up the edges of the chimney to cut back warmth switch by way of the masonry.
In my view, if you’re doing the job of eradicating a chimney breast on a floor flooring, I might significantly take into account taking all of it the best way out, prime to backside and sealing up the roof, to unravel the issues described above. unload. I do know that is an expense, however so is eradicating a bosom. Doing this accurately won’t solely take away the thermal bridge and the weak level of the waterproofing in your roof, but in addition reclaim just a few usable sq. meters of your house. Chimneys are fairly giant and take up valuable house. The price of homes is so terribly excessive that on a purely monetary foundation, the price of transferring could make sense. Every m2 in your house is price round £7,000 – £10,000 in London, £3,000 – £5,000 within the South East and round £2,000 in the remainder of the nation. In the event you dwell in London, the South East or any genteel a part of the nation, you would possibly discover that eliminating the out of date useless house in your chimneys is each a spatial and an power acquire!
