sour sickly taste and smell in room,,,nicotine stains or wee

[joe-90]

Is this a semi or terrace where the neighbour uses the other part of the chimney? There are millions of unused and uncapped chimneys out there that cause no problems.

 

[sonofrob]

yes mate the smell was acidic,,,and always worse on a windy day,,,definately the chimney,,,i plan to put rain caps on the pots at the top and pull the wool out,,,the coal fire has a sort of steel well under where the actual fire would burn,,,or where the grate would stand if you know what i mean,,,with a pipe coming from it which goes into the basement as if it been some kind of heating system a long time ago??? also has a knob attached to a steel bar that opens a flap in the pipe to open or close???,,,ive never seen anything like it,,,the place was built around 1900 i believe................

 

[Jackrae]

Baxi type fire - fantastic devices. They drew their air either from basement or from outside via a tube/pipe. Ours also had a complete wrap around water-box as the fire place and was more than capable of heating the whole house via pumped radiators. Or maybe one of these
http://www.percydoughty.com/warp_sites/percydoughty.g6/files/Burnall Underdraught Fire OpIns.pdf

 

[bernardgreen]

,with a pipe coming from it which goes into the basement as if it been some kind of heating system a long time ago???

Possibly an ash disposal system. Saves the risk of dropping a bucket of ash on the carpet. Or it might be a way to get air to the fire without having a colod draught in the room from an open door or window. Or even both of those.