I've recently seen a method involved whereby a large rubber 'sausage' was inserted up the chimney and inflated, then cemet or some kind of liquid refractory lining material was poured down the chimney and left to set for a couiple of days.

Is this a common method of chimney lining these days?

TT

Been away for a couple of weeks due to the house move and lack of internet connection at new address - still ongoing grrr!

Situation with dodgy stacks is still 'live'. Builder has erected scaffolding to inspect at close quarters but he was not prepared to make judgement on whether they needed rebuilding or just repointing. He recommended a structural engineer to come and take a look. Engineer reckoned that only repoint needed, I disagreed based on the following observations:

Measured lean on both stacks is over 30mm per metre. BRE recommend rebuild if lean exceeds 10mm per metre.

Existing lime mortar is totally shot, no cohesion at all can be scraped out with finger or brushed out with stiff paint brush. In some areas where repointing has been carried out previously there is no original mortar left behing the repointing

The chimney can be rocked by hand with moderate pressure applied although the engineer??!! ??? :-D reckoned that he couldn't make this happen. My 9 yr old could make it rock!!

When questioned about his survey technique he was very vague about how he carried out his inpection and did not reference any kind of standard or criteria against which he was checking. I don't actually believe that he climbed the scaffold but looked at the job from ground level with a pair of Bino's.

Have since consulted what I believe to be  Bona Fide Building Surveyors who all seem to agree that the stacks need to be dismantled and rebuilt.

Please could someone give me a guestimate how much to dismantle & rebuild for 2no stacks using the original cleaned-up bricks and including scaffold. Stacks are 2 stretchers wide x 6 stretchers deep. One is about 2.5m above roof level and the other is about 2m above roof level, deepest Sussex down by the sea.

Thanks

Gammy

Update - Checked walls last night with covermeter and can pretty much confirm that bulging render coincides with where wall ties are located. In areas of very bad bulging detection of ties is almost impossible probably due to ties having completely corroded away.

Gammy