Can anyone identify what this 1930's chimney was used for?

[Lamentable]

I was under the bathroom floor over the weekend in our 1930s house.

At the exterior wall end of the bath there is some box section and I was surprised to find nothing underneath it. That is no floor boards and no joist.

The left of the picture is the exterior wall. The rest of the room has a joist running close to the exterior wall until we get to this end of the room. The joist must finish somewhere bottom left of the photo, it is then turned right (as such) to connect to the next joist running under the bath waste. You can just see this piece below the cooper pipes in the slot in the floor board.

Thinking this was a bit strange I had a look at some of the other similar houses in the area and spotted this:

These houses all have a chimney at the rear of the property which starts towards the top of the kitchen and goes through the room which is now used as bathroom. This would explain all the smashed brick that you can see under the floor in my photo.

Interestingly, if you look at the detached house on the right, the reception room chimneys are
external yet the chimney at the back of the house is internal.

Does anyone know what this chimney was used for historically?

You can see on my photo there is some old lead pipe in the area as well so I'm thinking some sort of water heater or something like that?

On my property and some of the others the chimney has been removed. However, I'm struggling to see now how I could ever lay floor boards up to the wall to rework the bathroom is there is no joist adjacent to the exterior wall to lay them onto!

Thanks in advance for any information received.

 

[Mottie]

Gas boiler? All the houses down our street (60’s) had a small chimney for the floor mounted gas boiler in the kitchen. When we had a modern boiler fitted, it was located elsewhere so I removed the chimney right the way through and from the roof. Next door did the same.

 

[Lamentable]

Not sure as I guess the chimney was put in when the house was built.
Was gas available in the 30's?

 

[Dereekoo]

Not sure as I guess the chimney was put in when the house was built.
Was gas available in the 30's?

And in the 19th century

 

[JohnD]

might have been a gas geyser for the hot water. Sometimes hung on the kitchen wall near the sink.

A chimney that was ever used with a coal fire will have permanent and noticeable black soot stains.

the small one shown has a spout over the sink. The large one is plumbed to hot water taps in kitchen and bathroom. I have an idea they were discouraged in bathrooms in case a person in the bath was overcome by fumes. They were not room sealed but the inverted funnel over the large one goes to a flue.

 

[JohnD]

However, I'm struggling to see now how I could ever lay floor boards up to the wall to rework the bathroom is there is no joist adjacent to the exterior wall to lay them onto!

screw joist hangers to the wall.
or have a ledger.

 

[Lamentable]

There is evidence to the right of the sink, behind the more recent cupboards, of something being hung on the wall in that location.

Sounds like it was most likely a gas flu of sorts rather than a chimney for a coal fire.

Does that mean all the chimneys were originally used for gas fires? It would explain the solid steel pipe running to all three upstairs fire places and two downstairs ones. It must have been put in when the house was built as there is no sign of the disruption it would have caused to install it after the house was finished.

There was also some gas pipe left under the bathroom floor I had to angle grind out.

 

[Lamentable]

And in the 19th century

Thanks. It was my impression that these house were originally heated with coal. However as detailed (above) a gas pipe was installed.

 

[Lamentable]

screw joist hangers to the wall.
or have a ledger.

Thanks for this.

Would this repair only affect the bathroom, or would underfloor access be required in the adjacent room as well?

 

[JohnD]

If yu mean the ledger board, it only needs to be long enough to support the joists, but if it is a bit longer you can add an extra bolt at each end, which will add to strength.

If the floor has a supporting wall underneath, it probably hold the joists up. In some cases bathrooms have a lightweight partition wall standing on the floor, and if there was originally some kind of support attached to the chimney brickwork, a replacement support should be added.

A bathful of water plus occupant is quite heavy.

Plumbers are sometimes reckless and do not reinstate floors in cavities hidden under and behind baths.

 

[Tigercubrider]

what about a gas fired Ascot?
If the rooms on the semi (35) are kitchen/bathroom then a 30's house was built with gas heated water
My parents' house (built 1928) had a coke boiler from the kitchen tat was our water heater from 67-72 or so when we got gas CH.

 

[Lamentable]

If yu mean the ledger board, it only needs to be long enough to support the joists, but if it is a bit longer you can add an extra bolt at each end, which will add to strength.

If the floor has a supporting wall underneath, it probably hold the joists up. In some cases bathrooms have a lightweight partition wall standing on the floor, and if there was originally some kind of support attached to the chimney brickwork, a replacement support should be added.

A bathful of water plus occupant is quite heavy.

Plumbers are sometimes reckless and do not reinstate floors in cavities hidden under and behind baths.

Certainly the people that installed the bathroom here did not have a circular saw. To remove part of a floor board they preferred to drill a line of holes across the board and then just lever it out.

I digress.

Here is a rough sketch of the layout and yes you are correct in that there is a lightweight partition wall standing on the the floor. Below that is a single course bring wall brick. If I put my head down into the bathroom floor and look towards the bedroom I can see directly through where the hole is. The bricks were just smashed out and left under the floor in the bedroom. For the rest of the wall there are bricks at the joist level.

Not sure it will be possible to install a ledger as there will be no brick to screw it into.

Interestingly the stud partition is plaster on the bedroom side and almost like a cement type material on the bathroom side. Potentially this was to act as a fire stop which would give weight to the idea of there being some sort of boiler in the bathroom.

Potentially something like this was installed:

Thanks again.