Chimney Cowl / Terminal Fitting

Some of the most common chimney problems can be prevented with correct fitting of an appropriate terminal or cowl.  

Ideal examples of this are birds nesting, rainfall causing moisture issues in the chimney system, changes of wind direction causing smoke-back issues - all very common issues with chimneys which are in most cases preventable by fitting an appropriate terminal or cowl to your chimney pot.  

It is something often overlooked, which can result it far greater costs of remedy.    We offer various types of cowl fitting, from stainless steel high-top cowls, to anti-downdraught cowls to help with smoke-back issues and rotating cowls to assist with draw issues.  

We do not recommend or supply wire balloon bird guards. Although wire balloons prevent birds from entering the chimney, they still allow rain to enter the chimney, which can lead to damp build up. Another set back with wire balloons is that over time the mesh gets extremely thin and from the ground it appears as though the flue is protected, but from the roof - the top of the balloons rust out creating a hole for Jackdaws to pass through and build nests, which you won’t be aware of until problems occur. The main issue with wire balloons, is that they are not fixed - they are pushed into the pot and therefore without taking great precaution whilst carrying out a chimney sweep, it makes it extremely easy for them to be pushed off in the process of sweeping the chimney.  If your chimney has a wire balloon bird guard on a chimney that is in use, we recommend changing this for a fixed chimney cowl.

For redundant flue systems, we recommend installing vented terracotta "pepper pots". If the customer insists on using a wire balloon, then we make sure to use wire or jubilee clips to fix them to the pot so that they can not be easily knocked off or lifted by determined jackdaws.