Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Chimneys and Flues

The restoration continues, with the bricklayers completing the tops of the walls ready for the wall plate to hold the roof timbers. They are all now new, good and true - fantastic!

The aim for this Big Work is to complete the roof, ridge, chimneys and wall tops so that the structure is sound from the top.

The inexorable logic of renovation takes you to unplanned(and un-budgeted for!) decisions. It's thanks to the expertise of our builders that stage by stage we are making decisions about the structure, to create both a safe and secure rebuild, and to preserve as much as we can.We want to leave our options as wide as possible as we renovate in future.

Hence, when looking at the chimney flues, full to the top with years of birds nests, rubble etc., realisation dawned that we'd have to take the inside of the chimneys down;  "not more demolition" we cried!

But, now we are really building up again - the demolished gable wall and chimney are back up to the base - including the pad for the steel beams! 

Roller coaster, but amazing.


one way to get the mortar up there!

this morning's picture

more demolition - the chimney's insides lies on the street

rebuild! new door lintol (there wasn't one before!) and the start of a chimney again

window lintol, and wooden wall plate to hold the roof

inside the chimney stack - beautiful hand made bricks 

the anatomy of a building: two flues, one from the ground floor,the other upstairs.  You can see the grate of the upstairs one.

the other upstairs fireplace. We've put a lintol above the beautiful hand cut granite stone that we want to preserve 

to the right you can see the vestige of the flue up from the ground floor - what would have been the pub fireplace. Sadly no more