Camera Survey for a Refurbishment Project in West London

Property Description

Turner Baker Ltd were commissioned to carry out chimney surveys on a four-storey terraced townhouse in West London. The house was originally designed and built in Victorian times with a fireplace and chimney breast on every floor.

At some point in the history of the property, the chimney breast had been removed from the basement and partially removed from the ground floor. Only one flue remained towards the base of the property which now terminated at the basement ceiling. The flue to the basement floor had been entirely removed and the two flues running to the first floor were still in place.

Problem

Our client was keen to reinstate the chimney breast and fireplace on the ground floor of the property and needed to know if it was possible to reconnect with the remainder of the existing flue system. Additionally, there was also the requirement to reinstate the fireplace on the first floor which called for an inspection of the condition of the flue.

Solution

The team at Turner Baker were able to access both flues safely from the roof of the property. Flue identification – i.e. working out which flue runs to which fireplace was the first thing to be determined using our specialist inspection cameras.

We then recorded detailed footage of the condition of both flues. This footage was reviewed after the survey had been carried out with our team of experienced engineers looking for signs of wear and tear to allow them to determine the condition of the flues. It was clear from the initial camera inspection that both of the flues in this property had degraded to the extent that they were no longer safe to use and the installation of a chimney liner would be required.

We then carried out a GPR survey to identify exactly where the flue to the ground floor had been terminated so that proposals could be made to the project team on exactly how a new chimney breast could be reconnected to the remainder of the existing flue.