help! chimney fire?!

tom1ie

hi all.
Ive being lighting fires in my open fireplace for the last 1.5 years without any problems.
On Friday last 29/11/13 I got a 4kw inset stove installed. A flue was installed from the baffle plate at the top of the stove up to the flue of the chimney so the pipe was about 1.5m long.
Tonight 3/12/13 I lit a fire. Admittedly it was pretty roaring for about 2 or 3 mins and i'd say I overfilled it with polish coal (I think polish coal is the hotter type of coal?), so I shut down all the vents and eventually the fire died down. I ended up with a soot smell in the living room and the neighbour knocked in to say he got a bad smell of "soot" in his bedroom.
Would you say this was the beginnings of a chimney fire and if so should I get the chimney checked?
As I speak the fire is still going but there is just a warm red glow off it and the smell is gone from my house and the neighbours.
I forgot to say I got the chimney cleaned the day the stove was installed.
Any help greatly appreciated!

TopTec

Its sounds like your liner above the flue has 'blown' This lets the smoke and gases through the liner into the brickwork or stone and then through the plaster into a room, and is probably the reason your neighbour smelt the smoke. Was the liner above your new flue clay? or just brick work and stone? A good indication of this is scorch/smoke stains on the surface of the wall.

TBH after cleaning, the liner and chimney should of been checked to ensure it was in good order before fitting the flue up to it. Also it would of been better for the new flue to go all the way up to the pot.

Your only option now is the get the fella who did the work back to sort out the issue. In deepest winter you will want some heat generated from your inset and won't want to worry about stinking yours and your neighbours places out.

TT

tom1ie

thanks for getting back to me. I didn't get the flu up to the top of the chimney because of cash constraints tbh, but that would've been the right way to do it alright. I don't know if the flu was clay or just the brickwork but im gonna light the stove again and see if we get any more trouble tonight :eek:
Just wondering but should my carbon monoxide alarm have gone off if we were getting a smell of soot in the living room?

tom1ie

ok so I was just cleaning out the stove and I noticed in among the bits of coal embers an orangey sort of lump. when I squeezed it, it was sort of soft and then it just crumbled to dust. Do you think this was part of the clay flu? I'm guessing its probably not advisable to light a fire tonight? :eek:

monkeynuz

Are you burning regular coal? As opposed to stove coal?

tom1ie

monkeynuz wrote: »

Are you burning regular coal? As opposed to stove coal?

polish coal. 50% of fuel merchants said that was ok for stoves and 50% said the smokeless is what I should use. Just rang a particular chimney repairer/inspector person and he quoted me 250€ for a cctv inspection! holy ****!:mad:

monkeynuz

Regular coal is really not a good idea for any stove( I assume you have a grate in it too)

It has a delayed burn and gasses can go up the chimney and ignite in there causing damage and a blowback into the stove.

Also regular coal is filthy dirty horrible nasty gungy stuff so you will get the flue, stove and glass tarred up in no time.

Start using stove coal (nuts) at the earliest opportunity.

€250 for the cctv probably sounds about right to me, I know you probably didn't want ot hear that because I know it is a lot.

How old is the house?

tom1ie

monkeynuz wrote: »

Regular coal is really not a good idea for any stove( I assume you have a grate in it too)

It has a delayed burn and gasses can go up the chimney and ignite in there causing damage and a blowback into the stove.

Also regular coal is filthy dirty horrible nasty gungy stuff so you will get the flue, stove and glass tarred up in no time.

Start using stove coal (nuts) at the earliest opportunity.

€250 for the cctv probably sounds about right to me, I know you probably didn't want ot hear that because I know it is a lot.

How old is the house?

1964 I believe.
Well the 250 for the cctv was only the start! Im getting quoted 1800€ to line the chimney with the flexible heat proof and to get a cleaning trap door in place, wheras the chimney guy that installed the stove reckons he'll charge me 200€ for the flexible heat proof and a "good price" for the install. The first price is crazy but he did mention something about getting it on the house insurance if a chimney fire could be proven, or something like that.

monkeynuz

Although I would say that the stove probably shouldn't have been installed in the first place if a liner/clay liner wasn't there, although don't quote me on that.

Insurance could be difficult about it though.

TopTec

Tom.

If you are going to reline the chimney I personally wouldn't do the Cctv, or alternatively hire it and do it yourself. I did mine using my Fuji finepix on a line on video mode. That worked fine but of course it takes some messing about.

By coincidence I am lining one of my stone single storey chimneys tomorrow. The reason I say this is that for 5m of flexible liner the cost was 30 euro per metre ex vat and 100litre bag of vermiculite was 16 euro plus vat. A connector from the liner to the Oisin I am installing was 32 euro plus vat. This gives you an idea of the cost for the materials you would need to line your chimney all the way to the pot.

I would say that the lining would take less than a day. I don't know the situation regarding your stove but I cant believe the job would take longer than 2 days. The 1800 euro quote is over the top IMHO.

The debris you found could be fire cement or brick dust.... I wouldn't of thought a clay liner would melt into that. As to the CO2 detector I don't think smoke would set it off.... it doesn't when I am using my open fire and I get the occasional wind blow back!

Hope this helps. My advice is that don't try to cut corners.... or allow others to do that when it comes to chimneys. Do it right and you will have piece of mind.

TT