Look what we got on eBay: chimney pots - 'new' old terracotta clay

 Another glorious summer day, another chimney stack repair. 

 

After climbing up to the platform, Lenny needs about 0.54 seconds to remove the first chimney pot. That is surely an Olympic record! (Well, the pot was so loose, that a slightly overweight pigeon would have been able to topple it.)

This time around, for various reasons, we were only doing 'our half' of the chimney, so just two pots were (carefully) removed.

Note the bed sheets stuck into the stack, in the hope of minimising the rubble that would fall down the chimneys and into the house.

 

And here are the two beauties that we got on eBay, from a lovely family in Newham in east London. They're almost a perfect match.

We've again used NHL 5 lime for the mortar, although we had mixed advice on this, after speaking to all the usual experts: The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), Mike Wye & Associates and Ty-Mawr. Nevertheless, we came back to this as it seemed to work well on the main chimney (as much as that can be judged after four months). The ratio is 1 part lime to 2 parts sharp sand in volume, and about 0.6 of the binder in water. Mixed in a standard cement mixer (thanks to neighbour James for lending us that). Lovely stuff. 

The (almost) finishing touches...