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Building a stone chimney on damp wall

  • 12-09-2013 09:52PM
    #1
    jimbo75
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5 ✭


    Long time lurker but have never needed any advice until now :o

    My mother bought a dormer bungalow in 2001 and everything was fine up until winter came, then she started noticing a damp patch on the chimney wall right where the lead flashing is on the outside (the chimney steps out on the gable wall). We naturally thought that the flashing was faulty so called a builder in and he replaced the whole lot on both side's in the summer. Come winter time again the same problems arouse and called the builder back, he redone it all again at his cost thinking his men where at fault, but then the damp appeared again in the same spot just a few weeks later. The builder couldn't work this out so drilled a few holes into the cavity, put a camera up it and low and behold, the chimney was built solid and the with no cavity around it.

    He explained to her that if she wanted rid of the damp, the chimney was to come down at a cost of thousands which she didn't have. She moved away to the UK not long after this with her new husband and let my younger sister live in the house up until her retirement last year but the damp situation was never dealt with in all them year's. It was just papered over until it was noticeable, then repapered over.

    This is where i come in with my brain wave:D, seeing as she hasn't got the money to rebuild it with a new cavity around it, iv'e came up with the idea of building a stone fireplace, step it out 10 inches of the wall and the damp will be all forgot about. My mother has always talked about getting one built anyway but never got around to it until now. You see, my sister is only after building a stone wall in her new house and there's about 8sq metres left that would be perfect for this job.

    What i want to know, will i have any problems if i run 12inch damp course right up the wall where it meets the new stone fireplace. If the damp come's through then it will have nowhere to go and wont show any signs of damp on the new stone work.

    I was also thinking of putting a hole in it somewhere for a ventilation but im not to sure incase it somehow vents the smoke back into the room, would this even be possible seeing as the chimney will be sucking all the smoke up and out the chimney. Around the open fire will be well sealed and tied into teh block wall with ties shot in and sealed with heat sealent. As for the damp course, i cant see it melting with the heat because it will be over 3ft away from the opening for the open fire on both sides.

    Just to put things into perspective incase anyone thinks its a major damp problem. the size of the damp patch would be the size of a football or just a small bit bigger.


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