building a 4 in 1 chimney

[demi]

we're renovating our old Turkish town house at the moment and the 2 bed rooms at the front didnt have any chimneys in them to put a wood burning stove. as we've no central heating and electricity is expensive ( and not eco-friendly ) we needed to build chimneys for the 2 bedrooms, the 2 stores below which were previously heating with wood burners and just sticking the pipe out a hole in the wall which was making the outside wall and windows all black with suit, and for the central living area which the other rooms lead off of.

they started by building up from the ground floor, 2 chimneys side by side in the same room with 1 hole into each one to connect the tube pipes from the stoves. they are built onto the middle wall separating the two rooms with access for this rooms chimney in this room and the other through the wall from the room next door. does that make sense?

the chimneys are made from clay bricks laid in a square built up around the tube piping from the actual wood stove. cement is the poured between the outside of the piping and the bricks to seal everything. the cement is left to set slightly then the pipes are pulled up to continue the chimney upwards, leaving the tube shape within.

so 2 chimneys were made like this, side by side, from the ground floor up.
then from the second floor, through one of the bedrooms, next to the first two chimneys, another two chimneys are made, again side by side with the first two so we now have 4 separate chimneys all connected together going up through the room, through the loft and out onto the roof top.
holes were left to connect stoves, one from the bedroom that the chimneys are in, one through the wall from the bedroom next door, and another from the central living room which the bedrooms lead off from. so the chimney that is nearest the central living room actually has two holes to connect 2 separate stove onto it. so i suppose its actually a 5 in one chimney

heres a picture to explain better:

[British Red]

Looks great - will you be cooking with wood as well? We do in the cooler months, but tend to use propane in the summer - its just too warm with the Esse going


Esse & Pheasants Sepia by British Red, on Flickr

[demi]

that looks lovely

yes we will next year.
our house is actually my OH grandmothers house that she has very kindly allowed us to destroy! she is now living on the first floor and us on the second. she has always cooked on her wood burner throughout the colder months and used a wee electric stove in the summer when its too hot to burn wood. she lives a very basic life, when we started the renovation work there wasn't even a bathroom inside the house, now there's 3
we are getting a wood burning cooker that also heats water in the taps and a couple of radiators in the bedroom & en suite bathroom , and we're getting hot water soler panels installed in a few weeks too. so hopefully by next year we will have hot water all year round.

this is cooker we're getting:

http://www.wayglobal.com/product/335/Al ... llery1]/3/

unfortunately i had to compromise on the design over practicality and efficiency as this is the only model we can get here that you can cook on and heats your water too. but iv got used to compromises in building this house. everything is done differently here so iv had to just suck it up and do it like the locals

[British Red]

At least yours isn't a listed building

The room that stove is in used to have a good view...to the rafters!


looking down from upstairs by British Red, on Flickr

I know all the joy, pain and endless frustrations you must be going through. Ours took over a year to restore.

Its a bit like smashing your face with a brick. Great when its over!

Its looking great though!

[gregorach]

Oh, it's BR! Fancy meeting you here.

[demi]

yes, smashing my face with a brick is a feeling i know very well!!!

our house SHOULD be a listed building, if they had listed buildings here!
i think there are a few special buildings that are protected. especially in Ohrid, which is a unesco would heritage site, i think the whole of the old town is protected. but not in our town. people would rather bulldoze their old house down and build a nasty new concrete one. its horrible. but we are trying to save as much of ours as possible. at least the outside walls with all the beautiful architecture are remaining the same, but the inside had to be completely ripped out and stripped back the a bear walls. the whole roof was collapsed in and had to be completely replaced and we had to reinforce the whole structure with reinforced concrete supporters as we get earthquakes here and the house was cracked in half with subsidence on one side.
but now its structurally sound and sealed from the weather with a nice new roof just the internal bits to do now. we've been at this since 2007, but we've been going back and forward to Scotland to work and save money and to have a couple of babies along the way this is us now though, here for good. unless we get pregnant again, but thats not the plan for just now

here was a view from one of the bedrooms

[British Red]

Yeah we do the commute and work away thing too - but this is home now. I don't envy you the earthquakes - thats one trouble we haven't had!

[British Red]

Oh, it's BR! Fancy meeting you here.

Thought it time to come and tap into the wisdom here again now we are upping our self sufficiency efforts!