Help with choosing a bird/rain chimney guard. + Downdraught?

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

I recently moved into a new house which has an open fire. Rather stupidly, the aerial is attached to the chimney so that the horizontal section goes over the top of the chimney. Well, it seems stupid to my mind, yet I've been told it's fine and it seems - while I've been looking around at other houses when driving in the car - that a lot of people's chimneys/aerials are the same.....

Anyways, because birds like to sit on the aerial and sh!t down the chimney, and just because we think it's a good idea, we are going to get a bird / rain guard. It seems there are so many to choose from. As I know nothing about them I wondered if anyone could recommend one or tell me what to look out for, how much I should look to spend, etc. Incidentally, a lot of the ones on the net seem to be around £30ish. Yet the few chimney sweeps I've had quotes from have said the ones they could provide us with would be £80 or more (some over £100 NOT including fitting). Is that because they would use "better" ones - or are they trying to earn a fast buck?

One other thing, I've been reading a bit about downdraughts and wondered if there is an easy way to tell whether we have a problem with this or not? While we are protecting from birds and rain we might as well get everything sorted!!!

Any advice would be great.

Cheers

Max

 

[htgeng]

Hi all
Any advice would be great.
Max

I don't know the specific regs with regard to putting a cowl on a chimney with an open fire, but be wary. google hetas.

For a different solution, either put bird spikes on the aerial, or just reposition it so they **** on the roof instead.