Took out fire, boxed in & Plastered but now can hear rain/hail coming in?!

[Chocolate99]

Hi lovelies, I had my gas fire capped and removed, then hole was boarded up and plastered in last 10 days. since then the plaster has all dried but at the weekend I could hear hail coming down the chimney which I haven't heard before and now when I go in the room I can smell wet plasterboard :(

Looking at my chimney outside I have a chimney pot, would a cowl stop this from happening or is it something else that has occurred since taking fire out? Man said there was already a lintel there so he just boarded it up.. xx

You need to cap your chimney pot! I bought a house where the fireplaces had been taken out and steel put in for support but the chimney pots were never capped. Rain was coming straight through into the roof space causing damp.

Thanks Dingbat, is capping the same as cowl, or does cowl allow air in for ventilation? think I need to get a roofer to add it then as not going up a ladder that high! x

Yes we had this too, the chimney needs recapping, we had to have it done again after a couple of years, they perhaps didn't do it properly the first time.

They just put something on the top to close the hole. If you are not using it for a fire then I don't believe it needs to be vented. We had a chimney sweep do ours.

fab, thanks so much, will get online and find one, cheers very much x