Hi, we've been in our house just over 18 months, its a early 1970's build (Clay lined chimney) that had a wood burner fitted when we moved in. The previous install was a bit of a botch job which consisted of the wood burner stove pipe going into a register plate then a coupling fitted to around 1 meter of flex liner which ran up into the original clay liner which is around 8" diameter, no sump or anything was used so there was a lot of debris on the register plate, saying this we never had any issues technically and had used the fire the previous winter.
We removed the fireplace and got it professionally swept and the area cleaned. We booked a HETAS register installer to reinstall and commission the wood burner including fitting a full length 316 flueliner at a diameter of 5", fabrication of a new register plate and cowl to connect to the liner. When he installed the 5" liner he mentioned how hard it was to get down the clay liner due to the bends in it so there was no chance he would have got a 6" down which he originally intended on.
He commissioned the stove and the flue draught was around 27 pascals which he was happy with and signed it off. After he left i noticed a slight chemical smell upstairs in my house which i put down to the new liner being used for the first time and perhaps burning off any residue left on it from the manufacturing process.
The next day we light a fire early on and run it for a few hours which i imagine got the flue up to full operating temperature . Again i go upstairs and notice a very distinct and strong chemical burning smell. There is an airing cupboard that is adjacent to the chimney which i feel the smell is coming from when i look in a cupboard i notice faint smoke particles leaking from behind some small holes in the plaster.
I let the fire die down, open all the windows to dissipate the smell. I removed everything from the cupboard and removed the plaster from the wall to expose the chimney brick and noticed that there were a number of blackened fissures in the chimney brickwork where the mortar had failed leading back into the depths of the chimney wall. The next day light a small fire with alot of paper which produces tons of smoke... i see nothing no leaks, gradually we run the fire hotter and stoke it up... when its up to full operating temperate again i see smoke particles leaking from the cracks in the chimney accompanied with the strong chemical burning smell.
Now my assumption is that the new liner is physically resting on old creosote deposits within the clay liner that were't removed during the sweeping process and coincidentally with the new flue cowl capping the chimney there is no draught within the old clay liner, combine this with what i imagine is a fail within the clay liner and a fail within the chimney brick work the smoke is now finding its way out via the path of least resistance which happens to be my airing cupboard.
I was wondering if i can get some words of advice on how i might remediate this, and what the risk is if i use the fire again.
Cheers, G
We removed the fireplace and got it professionally swept and the area cleaned. We booked a HETAS register installer to reinstall and commission the wood burner including fitting a full length 316 flueliner at a diameter of 5", fabrication of a new register plate and cowl to connect to the liner. When he installed the 5" liner he mentioned how hard it was to get down the clay liner due to the bends in it so there was no chance he would have got a 6" down which he originally intended on.
He commissioned the stove and the flue draught was around 27 pascals which he was happy with and signed it off. After he left i noticed a slight chemical smell upstairs in my house which i put down to the new liner being used for the first time and perhaps burning off any residue left on it from the manufacturing process.
The next day we light a fire early on and run it for a few hours which i imagine got the flue up to full operating temperature . Again i go upstairs and notice a very distinct and strong chemical burning smell. There is an airing cupboard that is adjacent to the chimney which i feel the smell is coming from when i look in a cupboard i notice faint smoke particles leaking from behind some small holes in the plaster.
I let the fire die down, open all the windows to dissipate the smell. I removed everything from the cupboard and removed the plaster from the wall to expose the chimney brick and noticed that there were a number of blackened fissures in the chimney brickwork where the mortar had failed leading back into the depths of the chimney wall. The next day light a small fire with alot of paper which produces tons of smoke... i see nothing no leaks, gradually we run the fire hotter and stoke it up... when its up to full operating temperate again i see smoke particles leaking from the cracks in the chimney accompanied with the strong chemical burning smell.
Now my assumption is that the new liner is physically resting on old creosote deposits within the clay liner that were't removed during the sweeping process and coincidentally with the new flue cowl capping the chimney there is no draught within the old clay liner, combine this with what i imagine is a fail within the clay liner and a fail within the chimney brick work the smoke is now finding its way out via the path of least resistance which happens to be my airing cupboard.
I was wondering if i can get some words of advice on how i might remediate this, and what the risk is if i use the fire again.
Cheers, G
