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Chimney Repair Oxford
Warning Signs that You Need Your Chimney Repaired
Turner Baker are here to help if your chimney becomes damaged from fire or old age. With over 10 years experience, We offer high quality chimney repair Oxford, no matter the issue that you have.
You can smell smoke when you light your fire or stove
Smelling smoke in any of the rooms of your property when your fire is lit, is a sign that your flue, which is the pipe that runs inside of your chimney, is leaking. You chimney is liable to degrade with age and use, both on the inside and the outside.
One of the main solutions for protecting the internal structure of your chimney/flue and also ensure that it is safe to use, is to have it line by a professional chimney liner company, such as Turner Baker.
A flue liner is a tube that is fitted down the insde of an existing chimney, or even over an old, existing chimney in an older property. We offer a variety of different flue liners in different materials, such as stainless steel, pumice, silica polymer and a thermosetting resin. This means that we can offer you the most suitable one for your chimney repair Oxford.
Under new rules set in the building regulations Document J, flue liners are obligatory for new build properties. This means that if you are building a new property with a chimney that you intend to use for heating purposes then it must be suitably lined.
You have a Chimney Fire
You may not know that your property has had a chimney fire. When a slow burning chimney fire occurs, they don’t get enough air or fuel to be dramatic or visible, however, they can still cause substantial damage to the integrity of your chimney. This can mean your chimney and flue require a substantial amount of chimney repair Oxford.
Temperatures during a chimney fire can reach 1,100 degrees Celsius. The effect of this is that heat is radiated through the property walls and any sparks could ignite flammable materials, such as wooden beams, that may be close to inside.
Even if you can’t see any damage on the chimney breast, it is highly likely that damage will have occurred predominetly on inside the chimney following a chimney fire. If you have a stainless steel flue liner in your chimney, the liner will need to be replaced completely as the crystalline structure of the steel changesl. This will mean that it will corrode very quickly if you continue to try and use it by lighting a fire. Stainless steel is also prone to buckling and changing shape when exposed to very high temperatures.
Other liners such as a concrete, pumice or Furanflex liner would need to be thoroughly checked by using CCTV inspection carried out by a professional before being used again following a chimney fire.
You have bits of masonry falling into the fireplace
Where a chimney is constructed of brick, the bricks may degrade and crumble over time and it is likely that the mortar in between the bricks will degrade as well through weathering and general aging. Any sign of degradation of the internal brickwork means that the chimney will have to be lined for the best course of chimney repair Oxford.
This is because the flue may leak smoke into another room in your property. Smoke will travel most efficiently through a smooth flue that has no obstructions, so to get the best performance from your open fire or multi fuel stove or wood burner the smoke needs to exit via the flue as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Any lumps and bumps caused by the uneven bricks on the way up through the flue will slow down the flow of the smoke. The smoke will then cool and leave deposits on the side of the flue. This will then cause a build up which will increase the risk of a chimney fire occurring.
Smoke does not get drawn up the flue
There could mean that there is a blockage in the chimney. The first thing for you to do is to get the chimney swept by a Guild of Master Sweeps or NACS accredited chimney sweep. Regular sweeping will remove any soot, birds’ nests, cobwebs and any other blockages that may be inside. It also removes creosote, which will help to prevent chimney fires. This is because chimneys must allow the free passage of hot flue gases, that contain dangerous chemicals, into the atmosphere at a higher elevation.
Any blockage in a gas flue could cause carbon monoxide poisoning to fill your property. Whilst gas flues can often be smaller and not attract the attention of birds for example, it is not unusual for something as small and as common as a spiders web to cause a significant blockage within. It is important that gas flues are swept at least once a year.
Structural damage to the chimney stack
Smoke from open fires contains acidic compounds that can be deposited onto the masonry of the flue. They can then attack the mortar and masonry which weakens the structure of the whole chimney.
This, combined with water penetration from weather and fracturing from cold frosts, can leave a chimney stack in a very unstable condition. The result could either be damage to the faces of some of the brickwork, the loosening of a few bricks, or the collapse of the entire chimney stack.
Turner Baker Chimney Repair Oxford
More information on different types of chimney problem can be found on our website www.turnerbaker.co.uk. If you would like any further advice about chimney repair Oxford please contact Turner Baker on 01432 839123 or info@turnerbaker.co.uk