My chimney leeks

[*sue*]

When it rains water dripps down my flue pipe onto the top of my wood burning stove. Why does this happen and how can I repair it?.

[PhilR]

When it rains water dripps down my flue pipe onto the top of my wood burning stove. Why does this happen and how can I repair it?.

 

 

Have you got a Welsh chimney? (sorry couldn't resist).

 

I assume from your post that water is dripping/running down the outside of your internal flue pipe? If so, it sounds like a leak around the roof collar. This should be cheap and easy to fix by applying sealant externally between the roof and collar. I am sure there will be many posts to follow about the best sealant to use .....................

 

Phil

[cheshire~rose]

We have a similar problem but the cause is that the flue pipe has become coroded at the top where it goes through the roof. We are waiting until we know we do not need the stove any more and summer has arrived properly to replace the flue pipe. There is no visible sign of the corosion but around the top internal edge of the flue there is a crust of sooty deposit has formed and the drips we get falling onto the stove top tend to be either sooty if we have the stove lit or white when we have left the boat for a while rather than just clean water.

 

If you can seal the collar easily and cheaply then it is well worth a try but before you outlay a lot of money on any high performance sealer it may be worth removing the finisher around the top internal edge of the flue to investigate for any corosion.

[RobinJ]

I assume from your post that water is dripping/running down the outside of your internal flue pipe? If so, it sounds like a leak around the roof collar. This should be cheap and easy to fix by applying sealant externally between the roof and collar.

It could be the seal between the collar and the roof, or the seal between the collar and the chimney.

High temperature butyl sealant seems to work, but it may mean you have to loosen or reseat the collar to do it properly?

[carlt]

Swmbo's mum grows leeks in old drainpipes, to keep them straight, but boat chimneys would work just as well.

 

I sealed my stack and collar with Marineflex, btw, which works just fine...I seal just about everything with Marineflex.

[jenlyn]

When it rains water dripps down my flue pipe onto the top of my wood burning stove. Why does this happen and how can I repair it?.

 

has to be the top of the chimney where it joins the collar, some sealant will sort it, had the same thing happen to me, i sealed it with some fire sealant, end of problem

[alan_fincher]

has to be the top of the chimney where it joins the collar, some sealant will sort it, had the same thing happen to me, i sealed it with some fire sealant, end of problem

 

No, it doesn't, although this is perhaps the most likely.

 

As RobinJ said, it can equally be where the collar bolts down onto the roof, (often either attempting to mate flat with curved, or by use of some dodgy spacer). That's certainly where ours failed, and the amount of corrosion under the collar the needed cleaning up was surprising.

 

Inside where the flue appears through the roof linings, it might not be obvious where it actually is getting in.....

[magnetman]

When it rains water dripps down my flue pipe onto the top of my wood burning stove. Why does this happen and how can I repair it?.

 

If you fix a chimney cap (chinamans hat, coolie cap) to the end, to stop rain goin down the inside of the flue you should be able to work out where it is leaking.

 

If it still leaks its probably going under the collar.

[nb Innisfree]

A proper double skinned chimney with the inner skin fitting inside the flue will prevent rain getting in between collar and flue (if that is the point of entry)

[MtB]

has to be the top of the chimney where it joins the collar, some sealant will sort it, had the same thing happen to me, i sealed it with some fire sealant, end of problem

 

I disagree!

 

Assuming you have a coolie hat on the chimney to stop water going down the inside, the only way left for water to get in is though the joint between the chimney collar and the roof. Cleaning the perimeter of the collar and the roof around it and applying a nice new bead of paintable silicone to the joint should sort it out.

 

If the collar is bolted into position then seal the bolt heads to the collar too.

 

Cheers, Mike

Edited May 14, 2010 by Mike the Boilerman

[Jim]

When it rains water dripps down my flue pipe onto the top of my wood burning stove. Why does this happen and how can I repair it?.

When this happened to me it turned out to be a crack in the collar. Attempting to seal it worked up to a point, but eventually I had a new collar fitted.

Jim

[topcatm]

When this happened to me it turned out to be a crack in the collar. Attempting to seal it worked up to a point, but eventually I had a new collar fitted.

Jim

Hi

 

Another thought. Water could get into the roof void via a leaking roof vent and run under the roof until exiting at this point.

Do you have mushrooms or spaceships vents? If spaceships the drain can get blocked causing water to get inthrough the vent. I know it happened to me . I spent a fortune on sealants before finding the cause!!

[*sue*]

Thanks everyone for your advice, it has been really useful

Sue

[Gibbo]

No, it doesn't, although this is perhaps the most likely.

 

As RobinJ said, it can equally be where the collar bolts down onto the roof, (often either attempting to mate flat with curved, or by use of some dodgy spacer). That's certainly where ours failed, and the amount of corrosion under the collar the needed cleaning up was surprising.

 

Inside where the flue appears through the roof linings, it might not be obvious where it actually is getting in.....

 

Seconded. I've just had to deal with exactly the same issue. Remove collar, remove flue, reseal collar (which involved repainting the roof underneath it in my case) then reseal it all. Quite an involved job really. But not difficult.

 

Actually, I think leaking between the collar and the roof is probably more likely than anything else.