Does anyone have an open fire?

[Mile195]

Gruesome stuff... I can confirm however that my chimney is clear of any creatures, living or dead... The installer fitted a "bird guard" to the chimney pot. While it's designed primarily for avian life forms, I assume that it is also reasonably effective against humans too!

 

[Cuchilo]

Mines on too often for life forms to make a home in it . Running a joinery workshop means its often on in the summer

 

[Mile195]

I was going to say the same thing. Happened to discuss this with a Surveyor friend at their place in France a few weeks ago who explained the technical details - they have a closed wood burner for the reason that the chimney stack is not high enough to be in the "negative pressure zone" and they got blow-back from an open fire

Although the chimney was partially rebuilt after the '87 storm (or so I was told by the neighbour), it was rebuilt to the same height. Most of the homes on the street still have their chimneys, and you can see it's the same as all the others. I would hope that if there was any problem with the construction, that would have become apparent when they did the "smoke test", which I understand they have to do to give me the certificate that proves everything was installed properly.

 

[swee'pea99]

Can you ask neighbours if they had problems recently?

We do get the occasional bit of smoke blow back, but I mean once a year, maybe, always when the wind's extreme. Certainly shouldn't happen as a matter of course. Maybe you could ring your builder and see what he has to say. At least then you've raised it as an issue, and can maybe agree with him that you'll monitor the situation for a month and see how it goes.