20 October 2018
It's getting on for that time of year again, when we have to shift our focus towards preparing for winter. First to do - sweep the stove chimney. When we had the stove installed we took the option of having a telescopic bottom section of the chimney that, in theory, should just slide up so we can insert a chimney brush. As the stove has an oven in the top, you can't just poke a brush up through the stove as there is no opening.
I had envisaged an inner tube with an aperture, but in fact there was no support when the lower part was telescoped upward. This created a stressful situation ...
This gives a better idea. We found that it was very difficult to persuade the pipe to slide up itself to insert the brushes, so Dave levered it inch by inch with a long piece of wood, while I stuck in batons to hold it up until we had enough space for the brush. Then we swept it out, removed the cloth and hoovered up. All good. But then we tried to drop the telescoping section back down.
Initially, Dave was up the ladder, holding the upper section of pipe, while I tried to work the pipe downwards. This resulted in me holding a heavy double section of pipe that had come loose in my hands, while Dave was straining to hold the rest of the chimney up. The only solution was to return my bit and put the supports back in. The problem was that the bracket holding the chimney was slumping, so we built this leaning tower 'of pizza' (as Dave called it) to support the bracket, so that we could take out the lowest section again, and beat it apart. Then we struggled it back into place and tightened the collar. Not my happiest hour and a half. We were battered by the time it was done.
It's getting on for that time of year again, when we have to shift our focus towards preparing for winter. First to do - sweep the stove chimney. When we had the stove installed we took the option of having a telescopic bottom section of the chimney that, in theory, should just slide up so we can insert a chimney brush. As the stove has an oven in the top, you can't just poke a brush up through the stove as there is no opening.
I had envisaged an inner tube with an aperture, but in fact there was no support when the lower part was telescoped upward. This created a stressful situation ...
Ready to go: special cloth swathing the stove, brushes inserted and poles fitted. What this doesn't show is the 30 minutes of battling with the stove pipe just previously.
Initially, Dave was up the ladder, holding the upper section of pipe, while I tried to work the pipe downwards. This resulted in me holding a heavy double section of pipe that had come loose in my hands, while Dave was straining to hold the rest of the chimney up. The only solution was to return my bit and put the supports back in. The problem was that the bracket holding the chimney was slumping, so we built this leaning tower 'of pizza' (as Dave called it) to support the bracket, so that we could take out the lowest section again, and beat it apart. Then we struggled it back into place and tightened the collar. Not my happiest hour and a half. We were battered by the time it was done.
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