Renovation project - I am so cold!

Renovation project - I am so cold!

The fire has started to dry the house out and warm it up, but there is a problem, John noticed a smell and went to investigate.

He has seen that tar has ran down the flue, this is a big problem and means the fire can not be used.

Once it is cooled down he removes the flue and his worst suspicions have been confirmed, there is tar on the flue. The chimney has been swept, he can only assume that the flue is touching the chimney somewhere, this is not something that can be ignored.

The chimney will need a different kind of flue liner.

The problem is that john does not have the equipment to do this, he left all of his big ladders and his cat ladders in the UK some years ago.

We have a choice

We can go and buy everything he needs to do it (which will cost a fortune and never be used again) and risk John going on the roof to complete a 2 man job alone

Or

We can pay a professional to do it

We have no choice, we do not want the risk of John being on the roof, especially as where he would have to climb is very close to next door, so not enough room for a ladder, or closing off the road, and still not having the correct equipment.

We start to look for a professional to do this job and are given the phone number for a french company.

I call and speak to the guy, who does not have a word of English, he says he can come to quote next week, NOOOOOOOO it is so cold.

He agrees to come tomorrow.

We have no choice, we have also contacted another professional and left a message, as we would like to get a couple of quotes.

If you are going to complete and live in a renovation project like this one, you have to be prepared for these problems, it is the middle of winter, it is cold and we have 2 little plug in heaters and are having to use 2 rings on the cooker for heating, this is not the healthiest option, but at least it gives a little bit of heat (and it is only a little bit, we are back to wearing a number of jumpers and fleeces and woolly hats just to sit and watch the TV in an evening!

We have a carbon monoxide detector in the kitchen to make sure we are OK, until I realise it is actually a smoke detector!


But it shouldn't be too long before it is fixed, if the worst comes to the worst I can always turn on the water works with the chimney guy to try and get him to do it quickly!