Traditionally, a chimney of residential buildings, such as a detached house, is built up by masonry. In this case, a flue duct is formed into a space inside a bricklayer.

To a chimney formed like this, openings and connections to a fireplace may be accomplished in connection with masonry. Masonry at place requires high professional skill from a mason and it is relatively laborious, slow and expensive.

Therefore, reaching a result of good quality is generally uncertain. A chimney with bad masonry causes risks in fire safety, while even minor movements in the construction of a building may cause in walls of a chimney cracks reaching even to flue ducts and from those cracks fire may spread to flammable parts of a house. To reduce these problems various kinds of element chimneys dismountable of elements bigger than a separate brick or of so-called modules have been developed. Due to those, it has been possible to make it somewhat easier to build chimneys and to decrease earlier mentioned problems. Building up a chimney from elements requires still quite a lot of skill from an assembler and it is often cumbersome and time wasting. Therefore, for example, leakages causing risks in fire safety are still possible. In addition, building up present chimneys requires timing of the building of the stove and other surrounding construction while building new, which often causes stress on the building site and increases costs resulting from the assembling of a chimney.

While building a new chimney to the place of an old one in an existing building (so- called compensating chimney) with present methods, the chimney is build up with bricks or elements to an opening made at the chimney. Assembling a compensating chimney in this way is often cumbersome and requires a lot of skill from a mason due to tightness of the opening and other surrounding constructions among other things. For example, lead-throughs of intermediate floors make the masonry more difficult and cause a risk in quality, which may cause for example earlier mentioned

problems in fire safety. In addition, working and doing the masonry of a compensating chimney from dismountable bricks or elements causes a lot of different kind of mess and, as a result of it, cleaning work inside the building and surroundings during the building time.

The object of the invention is to provide a method and a chimney, with which the earlier mentioned problems are eliminated. Especially, the object of the invention is to provide a method and a chimney, with which the building of a chimney in a new building is made easier and more quickly, and with which fire safety is increased and cost resulting from the assembling of a chimney are reduced. In addition, the object of the invention is to provide a method and a chimney, due to which chimneys may be assembled easier and with less trouble in an existing building and, therefore, causing less costs and troublesome cleaning work.

The object of the invention is accomplished by a method for assembling a chimney in a residential building and by a chimney, the characteristics of which are presented in the claims.

Characteristic to a method in accordance with the invention is the fact that essentially complete, strengthened with reinforcements chimney with mineral aggregate frame is brought near a building and that the chimney is lifted to the building essentially complete, is placed down against an attaching construction inside the building and is attached to the attaching construction with adjustable attaching elements included in the chimney. These measures take remarkable less time than, for example, assembling an element chimney or a chimney with module construction because there is no need for assembling and connecting to each other of modules or elements which requires a lot of accuracy and carefulness. This reduces requirements for professional skills of the assembler and facilitates the work on the building site as well as reduces costs due to assembling of the chimney and, for example, the mess caused by the assembling of the chimney. While the chimney may be manufactured for the most part in industrial environment the chimney is possible to make of uniform quality and definitely tight as well as to tolerate movements of the building. Due to reinforcements inside the frame part the chimney tolerates well to be lifted to the fireplace in connection with it as a whole as well as the connecting of it to its place. Due to adjustable attaching elements, the chimney may be fixed immediately after lifting steady and quickly to the final position adjustably and flexible arranged to the timetable of other possible building works such that time and costs are saved as well as troubles due to difficulties in timing various working phases are minimized. Due to these advantages, the total

costs in accordance with manufacturing and assembling of the chimney to be assembled by the method in accordance with the invention remain clearly smaller than earlier recognized chimneys, the cleaning work after assembling of the chimney decreases and the control of material becomes easier. This makes the method in accordance with the invention more advantageous, safer and economically more profitable than earlier assembling methods of a chimney.

In an advantageous application of the method in accordance with the invention, the chimney is attached in its lower end to the building with adjustable attaching elements attached to reinforcements of the frame part of the chimney. Due to ready existing adjustable attaching elements attached to reinforcements of the chimney it may be fixed immediately after lifting steady, safe and quickly to the desired place, for example, to the base of the building and adjusted exactly to the final position. In addition, due to ready existing attaching elements, the chimney neither needs to be worked nor is there any need to fix some special attaching elements to the chimney in the risky phase of the mounting. This fastens and facilitates the assembling of the chimney and improves the assemblers'safety at work.

In the second advantageous application of the method in accordance with the invention the surface of the chimney is finished, such as painted or plastered after the assembling and connecting to the fireplace. In this way the desired outlook and the property of the surface of the chimney suitable to the furnishing of the apartment is achieved simply and economically by costs as well as go unnoticeable together with the upholstering materials of other furnishing surfaces.

Characteristic to the chimney in accordance with the invention is the fact that the chimney is of mineral aggregate frame, which frame comprises reinforcements for holding the chimney together during the lifting and assembling and that the lower part of the chimney comprises adjustable attaching elements for attaching the chimney from its lower part to the building. This kind of a chimney may be manufactured by casting in industrial environment to be almost finished before assembling to a building. In this way the chimney is of uniform quality and while in a building tolerates better the movements of constructions. Therefore, this kind of a chimney is more fire safe and long lasting. Due to reinforcements, this kind of a chimney tolerates well lifting and assembling as a whole to a building. This is not possible in case of earlier recognized chimneys with mineral aggregate frame, which must be assembled from pieces or elements often laboriously and cumbersome at the building place. Due to adjustable attaching elements included in the chimney this kind of a chimney may be attached to a building immediately after

lifting without attaching and mounting special attaching elements to the chimney as is the case in most today recognized chimneys. Economical costs of manufacturing and less work than earlier needed in assembling of such a chimney make this chimney essentially more advantageous in total costs than earlier chimneys.

In an advantageous application of the chimney in accordance with the invention, the chimney comprises a smoke damper, which has been mounted to the chimney before assembling the chimney to the building. While assembling to a building and connecting to a fireplace of earlier recognized chimneys, a smoke damper must have been mounted to the chimney as well. While a smoke damper has already been mounted to the chimney in a suitable place, which is known to be located in a suitable spot with respect to inner parts of the building, time, trouble and assembling costs of the chimney are saved. In addition, a ready mounted smoke damper is usually more economical by purchasing costs than one to be mounted on place, because in this case ready mounted smoke dampers have been purchased/manufactured already in the factory as big quantities/series. Therefore, a ready mounted smoke damper reduces distinctly costs resulting from the chimney and its assembling.

In the second advantageous application of the chimney in accordance with the invention, the smoke damper has been placed to the upper end or near the upper end of the flue duct and the transmitting elements of the movements of the smoke damper have been placed inside the frame part, between the inner surface of the flue duct and the outer surface of the frame part. Due to this kind of a smoke damper, the draught properties of the flue duct improve since the smoke damper is located in the end of the flue duct and therefore the flue duct stays dry and warm along the whole length. Also chimney sweeping is easy while the smoke damper may be manufactured such that it may be turned away as a whole from the outlet of the flue duct from the roof, and as a result, passing the sweeping equipment into the flue duct is without obstacles. In addition, for example, the mounting, change and maintenance work of the smoke damper is easy, while it may be carried out outside the building, which does not require handling of sooty objects inside the building.

Further, due to this kind of a smoke damper, running of sooty condensation water along the side of a chimney inside the house is avoided, which is typical, among other things, in case of recognized smoke dampers placed lower on a side of a chimney. Due to transmitting elements included in a smoke damper like this, the adjusting arm of the smoke damper may be placed to ideal height for handling inside the house, which facilitates the use of the smoke damper. Furthermore, the

location of the transmitting elements inside the frame part increases the reliability of functioning and service life of the smoke damper with respect to recognized transmitting mechanisms while the transmitting elements are separate from the flue duct but also inside the warm frame part of the chimney such that they always stay clean and non-freezing.

In the third advantageous application of the chimney in accordance with the invention in the lower part of the chimney, there is a connection opening through the outside of the chimney to the flue duct for connecting the flue duct to the fireplace. The connection opening has been placed at a suitable distance from the lower end of the chimney such that the fireplace may be connected to the chimney without working the chimney during the assembling phase. This makes it quicker and easier to connect the chimney to the fireplace during the assembling phase of the chimney.

Next, the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which, Figure 1 illustrates a chimney in accordance with the invention in partial section from side, and Figures 2a-g illustrates principal drawings of different alternatives for realizing a smoke damper included in the chimney in accordance with figure 1.

The chimney in accordance with figure 1 comprises a frame part 1 and inside of it longitudinal reinforcements 2 and crosswise reinforcement rings 3, a flue duct 4, attaching elements 5a-d of the chimney, a smoke damper 6, lifting elements 7a and 7b and a connection opening 8. In addition, the chimney in accordance with figure 1 comprises transmitting elements 9-16 of the smoke damper, which elements include an adjusting arm 9 of the smoke damper, a locking element 10 of the adjusting ann, a transmitter of movements 11, a duct for the transmitter of movements 12, a turning arm 13 and an attaching support 14 as well as a joint 15 between the turning arm and the attaching support and a joint 16 between the transmitter of movements and the turning arm.

The frame part 1 has been made in this case seamlessly as mould casting, in a mould of a size of a complete chimney of light gravel concrete or corresponding mineral aggregate, which may be cast. The material of the frame part may also be ordinary concrete but while using light gravel concrete the chimney may be manufactured as light as possible to facilitate lifting to its place and tolerating well loads during mounting and use. For strengthening the frame part further there are

longitudinal reinforcements 2 (4 pcs) mounted inside the chimney and crosswise reinforcement rings 3 at suitable intervals attached to those. The reinforcement rings 3 have been shaped as illustrated in figure 1 such that longitudinal reinforcements may be attached by means of them inside the casting mould to suitable spots, the flue duct 4 may be placed on the reinforcement rings to final mounting place without separate attaching elements (during casting the chimney is placed on its side, in horizontal position) and other parts inside the frame part of the chimney, such as lifting parts 7a and 7b to the upper end and attaching elements 5a-d to the lower end and the transmitting duct of movements 12 of the smoke damper may easily be attached to longitudinal and crosswise reinforcements before casting light gravel concrete.

The flue duct 4 has been made of thin pipe the material of which is, in this case, 0,4 mm acid-proof steel. The flue duct 4 has been placed inside the frame part 1 as illustrated in figure 1 during the casting of the frame part. The thickness of the wall of the flue ducts have been chosen to be relatively small such that draught properties of the chimney would be good even when the flue duct is used as a flue duct of a stove not being heated continuously. Due to the small thickness of the wall the flue duct is also relatively light which decreases the total weight of the chimney and reduces material costs resulting from the flue duct. An insulation layer made of fireproof insulation wool has been placed between the flue duct and the frame part, which insulation layer prevents excessive heating of the frame part. The insulation layer has been made of one piece of insulating material of the length of the whole flue duct.

In the application in accordance with figure 1, the smoke damper 6 is a valve type smoke damper, which has been placed on the frame part 1 of the chimney. The smoke damper 6 comprises a turning arm 13 projecting sidewards from the flue duct, which turning arm has been hinged with a joint 15 to the attaching support 14 attached on the chimney such that while turning downwards the projection of the turning arm reaching outside the hinged spot, the smoke damper turns from the upper end of the flue duct 4 upwards and sidewards to the direction of the hinged spot. There is a transmitter of movements 11 attached to the end of the turning arm 13 of the smoke damper to turn open and to close the smoke damper by means of a joint 16 turning around with respect to the turning arm of the smoke damper and its own longitudinal axis. The transmitter of movements 11 is a bar, longitudinal with respect to the chimney and placed in the the duct for transmitting the movements inside the frame part 1 of the chimney, which bar reaches from the top of the

chimney to the room placed under it from where the smoke damper is meant to be controlled. In this case, the duct for transmitting the movements 12 is a pipe somewhat bigger by inner diameter than the transmitter of movements 11 and made of stainless steel. There is an adjusting arm 9 of the smoke damper in the lower end of the transmitter of movements. In this application, it is a bar, attached to the lower end of the transmitter of movements 11 and in a perpendicular position with respect to it, by means of which the transmitter of movements may be moved in vertical direction for opening and closing the smoke damper. There is a hole of suitable size made for the adjusting arm 9 in the side of the frame part of the chimney at this point, to which hole a locking element 10 of the adjusting arm has been mounted for locking the adjusting arm and the smoke damper to various positions. The locking element 10 of the adjusting arm is a plate object attached to the opening of the adjusting arm made to the frame part, to which plate object teeth with intervals of the size of the diameter of the adjusting arm has been cut (for example three locking positions), against which the adjusting arm is turned while locking the damper to one of the positions.

The cover of the chimney is of sheet metal and the flue duct 4 rises about 30 mm above the end of the chimney and the sheet metal in which case the access of water flowing into the flue duct from the surface of the chimney is prevented. The smoke damper 6 is placed on top of the flue duct such that it touches only the upper edge of the flue duct due to which the smoke damper does not freeze nor get easily stuck to the end of the flue duct. In addition, the smoke damper is round by shape and its diameter is about 20 mm bigger than the outer diameter of the flue duct, in which case it forms a small eaves round the flue duct, which protects the end of the flue duct from getting wet.

The attaching elements Sa-d of the chimney have been made, in the application in accordance with figure 1, of angle shaped attaching elements, which have been attached to the lower corners of the frame part as presented in figure 1. The attaching elements 5a-d have been manufactured of steel objects which are sufficiently inflexible and long-lasting, which steel objects have been welded to the lower parts of the longitudinal reinforcements of the frame part for securing the strength of the attachment and the permanent position of the chimney. There are openings at the ends of the horizontal parts of the attaching elements, through which the chimney may be attached with screws/thread taps which have been attached to the foundation formed on the floor of the building at the point of the openings in the attaching elements. While desired, the attaching elements may be welded invisible

by means of after-casting carried out after the assembling of the chimney or covered by some other means, for example with skirting boards.

The connection opening 8 comprises a connection opening placed on the side of the frame part at a suitable place, on the inner surface of which opening there is a connection pipe made of stainless steel corresponding to the flue duct 2. It has been welded to the side of the flue duct 6 at the place of an opening of the size of the connection pipe made for this. The connection pipe included in the connection opening has been mounted to the flue duct 6 before placing the flue duct on the casting mould on reinforcements and casting the frame part of the chimney. The connection opening has been made by casting with a mould to the frame part. In some application, the connection opening placed in the frame part has been made elongated and the connection pipe has been attached movably in longitudinal direction of the chimney to the flue duct. Due to this, the position of the connection pipe with respect to the fireplace may be changed while connecting the fireplace to the chimney. This facilitates assembling the connecting channel between the fireplace and the chimney while in fireplaces of different manufactures the connection opening of the flue duct is placed in different heights.

Lifting elements 7a and 7b have been made of two concrete reinforcements (material for example reinforcement bar) which part above the frame part is U- shaped and which are attached as illustrated in figure 1 inside the frame part. The lifting elements have been attached by welding them to adjacent longitudinal reinforcements 2 inside the frame part such that the welding points are above the end of the lifting elements and the ends below the welding points have been bent to a horizontal position for locking the lifting elements to the mineral aggregate of the frame part. The lifting parts 7a and 7 b must not necessary be removed after assembling the chimney but are well suitable for fixing the chimney cap, for example.

While assembling a chimney illustrated in figure 1 in accordance with the method in accordance with the invention to a residential building in building phase, the chimney is transported to the building site where a suitable lifting device, for example, a crane truck has been brought earlier. A suitable time for assembling a chimney is, for example, in the phase of building up rafters or just before building walls, after the casting of the stove and the chimney has been accomplished. While the chimney is placed next to the building, for example, on the platform of the truck that brought it, the hook of the lifting device is placed to the lifting elements of the chimney and the chimney is lifted to the building or above it as a whole. After this,

the chimney is moved with the lifting device such that the chimney is exactly enough above the assembling spot. Next, the chimney is lowered downwards until the lower edge is near the lower base of the building. For fixing the chimney to its place there is a suitable foundation made at the place of the chimney in the lower base. It comprises screw taps attached to the points of attaching elements of the chimney (for example, by means of a pattern), which screw taps reach a suitable distance upwards from the foundation. While slowly lowering the chimney downwards the openings of the attaching elements 5a-d in the lower corners of the chimney are guided to screw taps in the foundation and the chimney is lowered down against the foundation. After this the chimney is fixed to the foundation by turning mounting nuts suitable to the screw taps, such fixing the chimney to its place and it stays steadily in the vertical position. There are adjusting nuts ready in the screw taps under the attaching elements 5a-d by means of which the position of the chimney may be adjusted after putting it down. By adjusting the attaching nuts in this way, the chimney is possible to place exactly in vertical position. The lifting hook of the lifting device may be removed after fixing and the lifting device is free for other purposes. While the building of a house continues, the chimney has support also in the upper part, for example at the point of the ceiling and the roof and possibly at the point of intermediate floor/floors in case of two or more storey building. While building and/or assembling a fireplace the chimney is connected to the fireplace in a recognized way, for example, by means of a suitable connection pipe between a fireplace and a chimney. While desired, a chimney or one flue duct included in it may also be used as an outlet channel of a cooker hood. At the end of the assembling or in the desired phase of the building work, the surface of the chimney is finished, for example, by plastering, painting or by some other way suitable for the other furnishings and the desires of the owner. Alternatively the chimney may also be finished before assembling.

The chimney in accordance with the invention may differ from the application in accordance with figure 1 in various application of the invention. Many different mineral aggregates such as concrete, brick, plaster concrete or some other suitable thermoduric mineral aggregates may be used for manufacturing the frame part.

Chimneys in accordance with the invention may be manufactured of various lengths for buildings of various heights. The shape of the cross-section of the frame part may be square, round or some architectonically special shape, such as oval or semicircular. The diameter of the frame part may vary depending on the diameter and number of flue ducts (typically about 100-200 mm). The thickness of material used in walls of the flue ducts may also vary. Advantageously it varies in the range

of 0, 4-1 mm. In some application there may be only one flue duct and in some other application there may be two or several flue ducts. Also, in between flue ducts and the frame part there is not necessarily any separate insulation but the material of the frame part may itself be well insulating in which case there is no need for special insulation layer. In a chimney with a special insulation layer, various fireproof insulation materials may be used. However, mere air space between the frame part and the flue duct may, in some applications, serve as insulation.

The attaching elements placed in the lower part of the chimney may be manufactured in many different ways as well as the number of attaching elements used for fixing may vary. For example, in one application there is construction in the attaching foundation, in which the chimney may be fixed with a flange with openings in suitable intervals in the lower edge of the chimney. This kind of fixing does not necessary require any special foundation but the chimney may be attached through openings in the flange straight to the floor of the building with screws or anchor screw taps to be fixed to openings in the floor at the points of the openings of the flange, to which anchor screw taps nuts may be placed on the both sides of the flange for adjusting the position of the chimney. While needed, the attaching elements may be covered after assembling, for example, with suitable after casting.

In the application in accordance with figure 1 the functioning of the smoke damper may be accomplished in many various ways. In figures 2a-g there are various ways presented for realizing a smoke damper placed on or in the upper part of a chimney.

The adjusting of the smoke dampers presented in figures 2a-g may be realized with a manually operated adjusting arm in accordance with figure 1 or their adjusting may be arranged motor driven. In this case, the motor is connected to move the transmitter of movements of smoke dampers (steplessly) to various positions. The control of an electrically driven smoke damper may, while desired, be automatized utilizing detector techniques or the adjusting may be arranged to function, for example, by means of a wireless remote control.

The smoke damper ready mounted in the chimney may naturally be a traditional smoke damper mounted on the side of the chimney. In this case, the smoke damper is, for example, a recognized by construction smoke damper made of stainless steel, which comprises a case type frame part, in the middle of which there is an opening of the size of a flue duct and in the open end of which the smoke damper may be adjusted to move tightly but easy inside the case part to cover partly or wholly the opening. Further, the smoke damper may be in some other way closing and opening the flue duct, or in some application of the chimney in accordance with the

invention does not necessary comprise a ready mounted smoke damper, in which case a smoke damper is mounted in a traditional way afterwards. In similar way, the connection opening of the flue duct may be made in the assembling phase of the chimney instead of a ready-made opening.

The lifting element/elements are important parts of the chimney in accordance with the invention. In an application of a chimney in accordance with the invention lifting parts have been accomplished by letting the longitudinal reinforcements placed inside the frame part project above the frame part for a suitable distance for making a construction similar to the lifting element in figure 1 by connecting (for example by welding) the ends of the reinforcements together. In principle, a lifting element may be whatever element projecting from the upper end of the chimney outside the frame part, such as mere a loop or a hook attached (preferably to the reinforcements of the frame part) steady enough to the point of the centre of gravity of the chimney, with which the chimney may be lifted safely. In some application, the lifting element/elements may be more complicated and provided more for the fixing of the chimney cap on the chimney. This refers, for example, to a construction made of a ring-shaped pipe or bar construction fixed on the chimney.

Further, in some other application the lifting element may be a removable part attached to the openings in the upper end of the chimney to the place of which a completely separate from the lifting element chimney cap or its fixing construction may be attached after lifting and assembling the chimney.

The invention is not limited to the presented advantageous application but it can vary within the frames of the idea of the invention formed in the claims.