It's blowing a gale down my chimney - would having a flue make a difference?

[reastie]

We had a beautiful gas fire with Victorian surround installed a couple of years ago. It looks the bees knees but it is incredibly cold in the room now - I just put my hand near the fire place and I can feel the breeze massively blowing on my hand. We had it done by chimney specialists who swept the chimney too, but there's no flue or anything in it, just a massive expanse of cold air which wafts into our sitting room. I've tried comparing the breeze to another fireplace in the house, which is a 'normal' fireplace and the breeze there is nowhere near as bad, but I have no idea if there's a flue in that chimney or not.

I know the men who fitted it said we didn't need a flue so we didn't get one, now I'm wondering if we had would it make our sitting room a little less arctic? Is there anything we can do retrospectively or is it all too late?

Btw - I don't really know what a flue is or it's function but it sounds like something which might minimise drafts

There are the things which sit on top of the chimney pot and stop draughts - a cowl or cap. They still let whatever needs to come out, come out, but stop the wind whistling down and any pigeons or other birds getting into the chimney. Google an image of them and you'll see what I mean. You can get terracotta ones which look nice with an old chimney.

Yes, we have a cowl on there already and have a special wire thingy ma bob on top to stop pigeons getting in, yet still we have a gale

The two fireplaces we've had installed both have flaps on which you can shut when you're not using it. They stop the down draught. Do you have one of these?

Oh no we don't yo now that would be a good idea. Does it look like the kind of thing they can do retrospectively do you think?

My old fireplace is covered with a marble sheet. No idea what is behind it. But when we had a bad storm, despite having a cap on top of chimney on roof, rain got in and seeped down the wall paper a few inches.

I'm very surprised that you have a gas fire venting up an open chimney with no stainless liner. I'm not a chimney expert but I would have expected it to lead to acid condensation which will attack the mortar. How old is the house? What is the size and shape of the chimneypot?

Look at the website of the fire manufacturer, and the fitting instructions that came with the fire, and see what they say.

Btw airflow is meant to go up a chimney, not down it.

What PigletJohn said, it's meant to go up, not down.

Could it be that it's cold because it's sucking all the warm air out of the room? If so you can block it up with a cushion or somesuch until you want to use it

But if it's really blowing down then that's a massive issue and un-useable as a chimney.

Cripes, we have a Victorian house, around 1880's - 1890's. I have no idea what acid condensation is but will have a look later. I also have no idea how to tell what size and shape the chimney pot is . We have the info of the fire manufacturer, will see what they say

This might sort it out

12 x 20 chimney draught excluder www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00G48ERWO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_K3WwwbZMY5Q1X