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Moved into a 1930's detached house 4 months ago. The original fires in the two bedrooms have been closed up by the previous owner. Also the fires in the living/dinning rooms have also been closed up.

When the roof was replaced by the previous owner, they had the chimney stacks removed, and the then new roof covered over the top of the chimney breast (N.B. the chimney breasts are external because of the house being detached).

We have noticed that there is a dampness to both bedrooms, also some white spots which have appeared on the inside of the wall where the chimney breast runs. We have used a damp meter which confirmed the presence of damp.

There is no ventilation to either of the chimney breast, internal or external and I am certain that this is causing the problem.

I believe I need to ventilate the chimney breast but do not know where abouts to place the ventilation units. Do they need to be internal/external, upstairs/downstrairs??

Also will I have problems with the soot particles in the chimney breast?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

a ventilation opening is needed for each boarded up fireplace and an additional vent at the top of the stack,it would be advisable to vent the stack with an airbrick first to reduce the risk of any soot fall entering internal rooms.any black mould appearing should be treated with a mould killer and not bleach contrary to others doctrine bleach does not kill the spores.

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