One of those days...

[Richard (OldStager)]

Well it started so well, today that is..

Then it just went downhill from there really.

 

There is a moral to this ditty.

 

Went to the supermarket for my weekly shop, in the Westy, no issues there - other than the obligatory car pulling out on me.

 

However when I got back home and went indoors to off load said shopping, I was greeted by the whole of the ground floor full of smoke ( or so I thought) , it smelt of burnt timber - anyone who camps will know that smell well.

 

 Terrified my house was on fire I looked about for the source of this 'smoke' or flames !!!, to find neither. What I did find however was everything on the ground floor was covered in about 2mm of soot, deep black soot, it covered everything.

 

A minute or so later I found the source of the soot...

 

Whilst I was out , the chimney decided to empty the contents of its interior into my dining room, which in turn then spread throughout the rest of the ground floor....

 

NOT a happy bunny, to say the least.

 

I thought I would get the worst of it up with the vacuum cleaner, which worked for 5 mins, then it stopped... Turns out every filter inside was blocked full of black powder, there are 5 filters in my vac, so I cleaned all these out and tried again... repeat this for another 3 times, each time lasting a minute or so more before stopping....

 

The dining room carpet is history now, just as well its a dark colour really, and once my dog goes I was going to replace them anyway, but might have to do sooner than that now.

 

Taken 5 hours with damp clothes to wipe every surface down, and had to be done 3 times to get rid of it all.

 

Anyway

The moral

Keep your chimneys clean folks, I didn't....

 

 

 

 

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Sorry to hear of your woes, OldStager.

I used to have an old Potterton floor standing boiler in my last house. It was old when we moved in back in 1977, and was still working well when we left in 2012. Every year I took the thing to bits (I know, naughty! But not actually illegal as long as I didn't charge for it and was competent.) and cleaned the burner and heat exchanger. I had been tardy one year and the CO alarm read-out began to creep up inexorably, so before it reached a danger level and screamed the house down with its siren, I serviced the boiler. The heat exchanger had sooted up because the burner was covered in grit coming down the open flue (lined with an aluminium liner) I suspect from high winds at the time. It hadn't happened before nor since. Anyway... The moral of this tale is to beware of vacuuming soot from the floor or heat exchanger. You've already discovered that it is the most monumentally fine particle size, but luckily for you your cleaner survived it. Mine didn't. 

 

We had a fairly new Panasonic bagless Dyson clone which worked well as long as the filters were cleaned after every use (what is a bag if not a big filter?) What I didn't realise was that not only was soot too fine for the cyclones to catch much of it, but that the filters were also too coarse. The soot got past the filters and because it was downstream of the whole system, the motor copped a load of it! Soot is carbon pure and simple, and carbon is highly conductive of electricity. Within five minutes of starting to Hoover the heat exchanger there was a noticeable drop in motor speed and a sudden smell of very hot windings. Sixty-odd seconds later the motor stopped - for ever! The soot had shorted the commutator segments on the armature and burned out the armature windings. Don't vacuum up soot! You, my dear sir, are lucky that your vacuum didn't go the way of mine!

[Steve (sdh2903)]

Think positive. There was no fire 

[Richard (OldStager)]

5 minutes ago, Man On The Clapham Omnibus said:

Sorry to hear of your woes, OldStager.

I used to have an old Potterton floor standing boiler in my last house. It was old when we moved in back in 1977, and was still working well when we left in 2012. Every year I took the thing to bits (I know, naughty! But not actually illegal as long as I didn't charge for it and was competent.) and cleaned the burner and heat exchanger. I had been tardy one year and the CO alarm read-out began to creep up inexorably, so before it reached a danger level and screamed the house down with its siren, I serviced the boiler. The heat exchanger had sooted up because the burner was covered in grit coming down the open flue (lined with an aluminium liner) I suspect from high winds at the time. It hadn't happened before nor since. Anyway... The moral of this tale is to beware of vacuuming soot from the floor or heat exchanger. You've already discovered that it is the most monumentally fine particle size, but luckily for you your cleaner survived it. Mine didn't. 

 

We had a fairly new Panasonic bagless Dyson clone which worked well as long as the filters were cleaned after every use (what is a bag if not a big filter?) What I didn't realise was that not only was soot too fine for the cyclones to catch much of it, but that the filters were also too coarse. The soot got past the filters and because it was downstream of the whole system, the motor copped a load of it! Soot is carbon pure and simple, and carbon is highly conductive of electricity. Within five minutes of starting to Hoover the heat exchanger there was a noticeable drop in motor speed and a sudden smell of very hot windings. Sixty-odd seconds later the motor stopped - for ever! The soot had shorted the commutator segments on the armature and burned out the armature windings. Don't vacuum up soot! You, my dear sir, are lucky that your vacuum didn't go the way of mine!

Thanks for the info, the vac is still working, I have just done upstairs as well as I noticed soot up here as well ( although not as much). I have cleaned the filters 5 times now as they keep on getting blocked, I will strip the machine this week given what you posted. Got a feeling I am going to find this soot on things for weeks to come, my own fault of course.

[Richard (OldStager)]

6 minutes ago, Steve (sdh2903) said:

Think positive. There was no fire 

True, I was convinced there was fire under the floor boards, because I have had issues with the electrics under there following some floods due to heavy rain in the past, and was my first thought. I have now blocked off the fireplace with thick plastic sheeting and will have to call a chimney sweep before it gets to winter.

[Richard (OldStager)]

To button this post off, today I finally found out what happened on Monday.

 

It seems a seagull had fallen in the chimney, got stuck halfway down due it its size, causing my deluge of soot, today it finally lost enough weight to fall to the bottom, I heard the most awful noises from behind my black plastic, and carefully removed it.

 

There was a seagull, looking quite annoyed, tried to get it out of the hearth but it won't move, it doesn't look to have damaged its legs , so any ideas on how I get rid of this?, Not the best person when it comes to flapping things in my face.

 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Try to get a tea towel over it then just carry it outside, or ask a neighbour.

 

Its a wood pigeon.

 

[Richard (OldStager)]

4 minutes ago, Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup) said:

Try to get a tea towel over it then just carry it outside, or ask a neighbour.

 

Its a wood pigeon.

 

LOL, never been good with birds, this is the second bird to have done that in as many years, need something on the stack to stop that now.

 

I have opened the back door and windows, and closed off its exit to anywhere else, if it's still there in a hour I willl get something to cover it with as you say.

Thanks.

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

I would put a saucer of water near it if you can. Must be ready for a drink.

[Richard (OldStager)]

Just now, Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup) said:

I would put a saucer of water near it if you can. Must be ready for a drink.

Good idea, will do

[Richard (OldStager)]

Was just doing that when it ventured out, its perched on the edge of the brick surround now, the dogs water bowl is a foot away from it, its eyeing the doorway which is good. I think its just stunned itself, as its quite timid really.

[Richard (OldStager)]

Ok success , threw a bedsheet over it took it outside, it flew away rather briskly.

 

Saga over.

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Thats great news.

 

Can you look up the chimney now. Is it clear.

[Richard (OldStager)]

No, that's the problem, it has a kink in it with brickwork at 45 degrees for a while, I think this is where the bird first fell to, it perhaps lost its footing in the dark and fell the rest of the way down. I need a mesh or something on the pot.

 

Having said that, I think from 2022 we around here are being banned from burning such fuels, which is fair enough given the climate change, I only cut up this winters supply of timber last week, so hopefully this will be the last year of open fire usage. I can get the chimney reduced in height and capped off fully then.

[Jim RS]

Shouldn't cap it off completely as it provides essential ventilation, get a vented top like a chinese cap or similar then no birds will be able to fall down.