| The central section of this hipped roof Georgian style house is 2-1/2 stories in height and the brick chimneys are taller still. As a general rule, the top of a chimney flue pipe should be a minimum of 2 feet higher than the tallest portion of the house that is within 10 feet. Such clearances would normally allow flue gases to draft properly without being adversely affected by air currents bouncing off adjacent surfaces.
In this case, the chimneys appear to be 2 feet taller than the peak of the main roof, which is clearly farther away than 10 feet. While there is nothing technically wrong with building a chimney taller than it needs to be -- and it is almost always better for chimneys to be too tall rather than too short so that they are able to draw smoke up and out and minimize the possibility of smoky downdrafts -- in this particular case, the double chimneys do appear to dominate the roof line.
I wonder if this was how the house was originally designed or if the chimneys where built this tall because someone misinterpreted the chimney height rule? |