Chimney stack pots - to cap or not?

[gotoPzero]

We have a chimney stack with 8 pots so I assume 8 flues.

Only recently bought the house so not entirely sure on the exact layout, but neighbour and chimney guy says they are all ours.

Out of the 8 pots we defo have 2 active fires. Out of the other 6, 3 are fully sealed with lead caps and 2 have rain hats on only so are still open.

This leaves 3 completely open, no hats or anything.

We also have a slight issue in that the one of the lead caps blew off in the last storm, so we are deciding what to do.

So we have 2 open fire places, and 8 flues.

I spoke to a friend who is in the business and he said just leave them open unless there is a problem.

My concern is, the 6 that go nowhere (of which 2 are already sealed) must still be "in the building" somewhere, I assume just bricked up?

Anyone got any ideas whats best to do? Should we cap them, or just leave as is?

My guess is the ones that are open have been left like that for years?

[gotoPzero]

Also is it possible that some of the pots are just decorative which is why they have just been left open?

I cant see how there were 8 fire places? 4 or 5 at the most.

[Road2Ruin]

gotoPzero said:

Also is it possible that some of the pots are just decorative which is why they have just been left open?

I cant see how there were 8 fire places? 4 or 5 at the most.

We have 8 in our house. 4 downstairs and 4 up. Only one is in serviceable order though

[gotoPzero]

Road2Ruin said:

gotoPzero said:

Also is it possible that some of the pots are just decorative which is why they have just been left open?

I cant see how there were 8 fire places? 4 or 5 at the most.

We have 8 in our house. 4 downstairs and 4 up. Only one is in serviceable order though

We have 2 stacks, both with 8 pots. So 16 fires. There is no way the house could ever have 16 fire places.
The one at the other end of the house they are all capped or have rain hats on.

[PhilboSE]

I was told it was best to use a sailors cap chimney cowl on pots that were no longer in use.

[chrisch77]

You want a cover of some sort to keep rain and birds out. However if you have an older house with solid brick walls (as seems likely from the chimney description) then it is good practice to have a cap that allows some amount of ventilation, to reduce condensation and damp in the unused chimneys.

[LooneyTunes]

chrisch77 said:

You want a cover of some sort to keep rain and birds out. However if you have an older house with solid brick walls (as seems likely from the chimney description) then it is good practice to have a cap that allows some amount of ventilation, to reduce condensation and damp in the unused chimneys.

That aligns with the views of our builder. We’ve had a bit of chimney work done recently and it was astonishing now much crap had been dropped in those that were uncapped by nesting birds.

[DonkeyApple]

I'd always put hats on pots whether in use or not. They stop the rain and the debris but allow the chimneys to breathe. Caps carry an element of risk with regards to an old house fitted with modern heating etc.

[PhilboSE]

The last few of us are all in agreement. This sort of thing:

[shtu]

Yep, I'd cap them, keep out critters as well as rain.

I used this sort a decade or so ago, and they're still there and look fine,

https://www.chimneycowlproducts.co.uk/acatalog/Dis...

[wolfracesonic]

I wouldn’t put the pepper pots in the above image on a live flue. As to wether to do anything with the open flues, if you’re not having any damp issues with them being open and it’s likely to cost a fortune in scaffolding to get up there I’d leave them as is. If the stack is reasonably accessible, some sort of cowl is not a bad idea if only to stop birds getting down the flue and you having to listen to their fluttering slowly get fainter over the following days. My next door neighbour had a pigeon down theirs which involved having to remove the gas fire and chase ithe bird around the living room scattering crap everywhere.

[PhilboSE]

wolfracesonic said:

I wouldn’t put the pepper pots in the above image on a live flue. As to wether to do anything with the open flues, if you’re not having any damp issues with them being open and it’s likely to cost a fortune in scaffolding to get up there I’d leave them as is. If the stack is reasonably accessible, some sort of cowl is not a bad idea if only to stop birds getting down the flue and you having to listen to their fluttering slowly get fainter over the following days. My next door neighbour had a pigeon down theirs which involved having to remove the gas fire and chase ithe bird around the living room scattering crap everywhere.

The cowls pictured above are NOT for live flues, so yes you wouldn’t put them on one in use. They are designed to cap unused flues but allow ventilation to avoid penetrating damp issues in the stack.

The effort of getting up to the pot is the same to drop one of these cowls in place as it is to fit a wire anti-bird cage.

I would definitely recommend capping an unused glue somehow, we once had a pigeon down one and it got into the room and there wasn’t a wall or surface it didn’t cover in excrement. They must be flying sacks of ste the amount of stuff this thing produced.

We’ve still got a couple of uncapped pots on another house, every time we have the chimneys swept a colossal amount of twig debris comes down because of jackdaws trying to nest up there. 100% cap an unused flue whenever you can arrange access.

[alscar]

We have 6 chimney pots but only 3 fireplaces in use.
The active ones all have rain cowls in place with the other 3 having "vented " caps in place.
Having birds / bats or whatever down the chimneys isn't desirable.

[gotoPzero]

After some discussion with neighbours it seems that some of the pots will be next door. Its a Victorian terrace.
Now looking to speak to the chimney / fire man who might know which pots are which as no one seems to know.
I dont want to mess with pots that are not mine IYSWIM. Also explains why there are so many.

[dickymint]

gotoPzero said:

After some discussion with neighbours it seems that some of the pots will be next door. Its a Victorian terrace.
Now looking to speak to the chimney / fire man who might know which pots are which as no one seems to know.
I dont want to mess with pots that are not mine IYSWIM. Also explains why there are so many.

Get some smoke pellets to check which are yours?

[gotoPzero]

Yes but part of the issue is that some of the fire places have been removed.
I am hoping the chimney guy will know, apparently been looking after these houses for 50 years as father and son outfit so I hope maybe he will know but other than that maybe try and find some old plans or something. Is there a method as to which pots go to which rooms?

[catso]

Probably a good idea, we've got 2 pots, both of which are in use but I have often thought about (but never bothered yet) to fit covers as rain etc must come down them? and one is for the boiler so can't do it any good.

I did have a bird in that one once, I heard something, wasn't sure at first what it was but by the time I'd got in there it was incinerated.

Not used the log-burner for a few years so who knows what might be down that one?

A few years back my Mother-in-law had an Owl in the living room (for the second time) we know Owls sit on the top of the chimney regularly and it must have slipped and fallen down the chimney into the log burner which, fortunately wasn't burning and had been left with the door open.



I got the call to get it out the house and when I got there, there was not just a live Owl but also a dead crow (not sure if natural causes or death by Owl?) but it had made quite a mess in the room, knocking things over whilst trying to escape.

I managed to get it to fly out of the open patio door after it had head-butted a couple of windows in a panic but she had covers fitted on all the chimneys after that.

I must get round to fitting some over mine...