Friday 19 October 2012

We Fixed Something!

This is the chimney that was leaking. I described it in a previous post, explaining that water was running down through the attic and dripping from the ceiling in our parlour. We do not use this fireplace, because the chimney was so dodgy. It was clear that water had been leaking for quite a while. We decided that we should avoid using the fireplace when we bought the LBH in July.

We plan to remove the chimney completely and patch the roof accordingly, perhaps next summer. We would like to put an efficient heater in this room, one that fits with the Victorian decor. For now, however, we decided that we had to deal with the leak in our roof.

Leaky Bits

Below is the chimney as we found it. I mentioned that our youngest child really wanted that pink bucket. Well, she got it! She was happy. We found the leaky spots around the base of the chimney and around the heat diffusing ring partway up the chimney stack.
Chimney Before Repair

We used a caulking gun with roof repair compound to seal around the base of the chimney and also around the heat diffusing ring, as you can see in the picture below. Because we are not going to be using this fireplace, it is acceptable to use roofing goo on the chimney itself. It is a stopgap repair, without a doubt, but at least it's keeping the rain outside where it belongs!
Roofing Goo Repair

We placed a different bucket atop the chimney, to keep the rain out. (Not the pink bucket.) In this town, one has to have at least one bucket on a chimney, otherwise the little house would feel left out.

This is not the most glamorous subject for a post, but the importance of staying dry cannot be underestimated.

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