Chimney Balloon

Today, we took a step towards a warmer future: we installed a chimney balloon in the, er, chimney. We just heard about them this weekend from some friends who have a HUGE Victorian house (anybody interested?) and who have had similar issues with drafty fireplaces.

Anybody who's stayed in our front/guest room will testify - the room's bloody cold, no matter the season, if heating is full blast or whatever.

Here's the balloon - quite straight forward.

 

There's a mouthpiece which you use to blow it up part of the way.

 

Then you place it under the hood and up into the chimney. The idea is it fills the drafty cavity.

 

We had to take the hood off (rather, it fell off) in order to get it situated correctly. Also hoovered up about a century's worth of debris.

 

Once it's in place, you continue to inflate it until max. Thankfully, we have (somehow we have 2 of them!) a little air generator thingie, so that did the trick!

 

Now, it's all snug and secure in the chimney and hopefully blocking out all drafts. Only time and guests will tell!

 

Our lovely but useless fireplace.

 

There are beautiful original tiles on the surround, some of which depict pastoral scenes.