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Looking for some opinion from the singletrack collective.......
i live in an old semi detatched cottage and recently when our neighbour lights their open fire our bedroom is getting smoked out.
inspection by a chimney sweep suggests that the mortar in the chimney is old and damaged and smoke is seeping through from their chimney into ours. Not sure which chimnety its getting into but one is capped as most of the chimney breast has been removed and one contains an internal flue from our wood stove so the smoke cant escape easily and is coming into our bedroom.
its not possible to repair the mortar as the space is too small to get into. the solution is to line the chimney.
so...is this a cost that i should be contributing to or is it a case that if they want to have an open fire they need to pay for and secure their own chimney?
they are trying to suggest our capped chimney is the problem which clearly it isnt really. im a reasonable fella, but hearing the neighbour state they cant live without the fire as gas is too expensive is likely to be a bit of a problem going forward.
we recently spent a lot of money replacing our internal flue, entirely at our own cost, so im thinking responsibility rests entirely with them for theirs?
Sounds like something they need to fix from how you describe it. However also sounds like you may be pushing water uphill to get them to fix their chimney if they are burning an open fire as gas is too expensive.
If the option was there I would not want to sleep in that room currently and would want a carbon monoxide alarm!
How much would it cost to put a flue in?
Getting yours or theirs lined with a flue would isolate them.
NB Ours is lined and we can get the fumes from next door's chimney drawn down our chimney into the room if we leave the fire vents open....
they reckon £2k to do the work?
our chimney isnt lined but as i said we have an internal flue so havent contributed to the internal chimney breast damage for probably 15 years. apparently the damage is caused by having the open fire in the first place.
i suppose we could line ours, although it would cost more as it has to work around the stove flue, but is it really our responsibility?
If they want to burn then they should maintain the appliance.
If this was a boiler discharging CO into your room it would be condemned.
contains an internal flue from our wood stove so the smoke cant escape easily and is coming into our bedroom.
our capped chimney
Sounds like it should be a 50/50 shared cost job? its unclear if your wood burner is venting into your house, thier fire is, or a bit of both..
its unclear if your wood burner is venting into your house, thier fire is, or a bit of both..
Not sure how it can't be clear. They have one capped chimney and one lined.
How's the smoke getting out of their woodburner flue ?
Regardless of the cost, more importantly lining yours won’t necessarily work if the smoke is leaking into/through the brickwork.
+1 for an immediate CO alarm before you even start other things. It’s not the sort of thing to take risks with and the alarms cost a few quid.
have a CO2 alarm in place.
its not our wood burner as it hasnt been on the last 2 times they lit their fire and smoked us out. the last time you could actually see the smoke leaving the bedroom window when we opened it so this isnt a small issue and isnt just a strong smell of smoke.
im hoping the fella will be more reasonable than she is being. Perhaps they should consider selling the Jag or the mini or the VW to pay for it.........
To be fair they are lucky you didn't just call the fire brigade. That much smoke in a room without a fire I'd be presuming something that wasn't supposed to be on fire .....was on fire.
Not sure how it can’t be clear. They have one capped chimney and one lined.
So it's not a shared chimeny, there are two and they are using thier neighbours?
Sounds like there are four, two each side.
I’d call the fire brigade next time smoke starting coming into my house.
By shared chimney assumed shared stack with multiple flues.
So it’s not a shared chimeny, there are two and they are using thier neighbours?
Well I'd imagine if that was the case the chimney sweep would have pointed the finger at the obvious rather than porous mortar joints.
maybe 'shared' isnt an accurate description, its shared in so much as its one big chimney stack but there is a one brick separation between their actual chimney flue and ours within the whole thing if that makes sense?
i guess you could say its a common/shared single brick separation between ours and their flue. obviously we only have a problem when they light their fire as their side isnt lined. we don tput smoke into their house as our is lined...
Put a smoke alarm near the trouble spots, dont use your fire and when it goes crazy invite them round to discuss..
Local authority - building regs breach
HETAS is the competent person scheme that might be able to advise
Having seen the devastation caused by damaged chimney flues I would make it a priority. If the separation has failed between the flies it may have failed elsewhere. Heat and sparks could escape into roof voids, between the floorboards and cause a fire. It sounds like a life threatening situation and needs sorting immediately. If it can’t be done nicely then so be it.
It's their smoke, surely it's their responsibility to ensure it stays in their chimney!
our chimney isnt lined but as i said we have an internal flue so havent contributed to the internal chimney breast damage
i suppose we could line ours
Forgive me if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but if the internal flue is in the chimney, it's already lined. Or do you mean you've got an exposed flue going up inside the house and out of the roof separate to the chimney? In that case, I don't think lining yours will work as the smoke can still get into the chimney, pass around the liner and into your house
They need to sort theirs out.
FWIW, when we moved in here, we had the gas fire and chimney tested. Gas bloke set off a smoke "bomb" in the fireplace... and then showed me how the smoke was pissing out of the gaps in the mortar of the chimney stack.
...then he told me that the reason there wasn't more coming out was because the rest of the smoke was coming out into the loft.
Condemned it on the spot.
Don't piss about OP, I'm sorry I can't point you in a direction but I'd agree a Hetas person would be worth a call. Or the fire brigade.
Your chimney must be borked as well then.
If its shared stack , with 1 course of brick separation and its coming through your wall...
Then it must transpire that your wall also needs pointing. Your liner saves you from your own smoke but not theirs.
They need to fit a wood burner to stop the ingress
But long term clay liners and or re pointing, somehow.
unfortunately it cant be re-pointed as its too small to get access to so a lining is the only option or the obvious fit a wood burner themselves.
looks like its going to be an interesting conversation tomorrow.
...a further thought that this is a (private) nuisance claim under tort. It might be worth seeing it your household policy has legal advice with it.
If you have cover, it'll let you take action against the neighbour. Or might give you legal advice.
Personally I'd be cropping (misprint) myself about death by CO poisoning or the effects of any treatments on the wood they're burning.
Log everything, including how it's making you feel.
Basically the parging and single brick leaf that separates the flueways within the chimney has broken down, there are a number of ways to reseal this: install flexible flue liner & hood over open fire but flex liner might be too small for fireplace opening size so may have to install wood burner as well alternatively install thermocrete liner, spray applied liner or furanflex liner. A decent chimney sweep is a good place to ask for advice. As it's your neighbours fire it's down to them to fix.
@Dickyboy a good, concise piece of advice. OP, Please get it sorted tomorrow.
Then you can subscribe and ensure the survival of STW!
What dickyboy said.
Some folk are proper ****shafts...
Continuing to use a fire after a neighbour has complained its filling the house with smoke is proper dick behaviour.
OP , I'd stick a CO alarm in the room meantime, and call the FB next time it happens.
.
Please don't call the fire brigade. I understand it's dangerous and needs sorting, but it doesn't need an additional call out on an already stretched and under funded service, just to make a point.
This is between you and your neighbour, not them.
As you can't put a price on good neighbours, I'd be looking at the cost and offering to make some sort of contribution. I know this won't be a popular opinion, but disputes with neighbours can make life utterly miserable.
Unless you're already at the 'poo on the door handles' stage of neighbourly relations, in which case, screw them.
A much more eloquent reply than mine was going to be submarined 😆
As you can’t put a price on good neighbours,
Sure you can. If you live next door to dickheads then buying them a new chimney isn't going to change that. If you've got money to burn (so to speak), get them a couple of jumpers.
Hang on, why not fit a spinning cowl on the capped chimney.? If it's the culprit and its capped then then smoke will leach into your place.
The spinners go at like 5knots so will draw in a light breeze. Wont cost hundreds to find out.
Or render the chimney externally?
And, you say half the chimney is missing, which half, it was there before for a reason now its gone and you have smoke ingres.
Their smoke getting into your living space?
Cant imagine Environmental health wont come down on that like a tonne of bricks.
a call to the council should have an EHO come out to inspect and discuss.
after last nights response from 'her' that it might get better if she keeps the fire going and the chimney warms up, followed by she 'cant not use it this winter', i wasnt expecting too much this morning. However, a much more sensible conversation was had with her husband who recognises it as their problem to solve and assures us they wont be using the fire until its fixed. He also seemed surprised to hear she had even lit it in the first place! Fingers crossed we have a resolution.
How disappointingly reasonable!
sorry to disappoint. i guess it would have been much more interesting if they had said their smoke doesnt target other peoples houses and therefore it was us intentionally lighting our own fire and smoking ourselves out.....
He's probably googled the problem and stumbled across this helpful thread 😂