Chimney & Fireplace

Water ingress through open flues at the top of the chimney

Eden G 09/09/2026 - 4.24 PM

Long story short We recently bought a house and had some work done on our roof and we discovered that our chimney has 3 big holes / open flues at the top which are going to get capped in the next few days but we had a massive downpour last Sunday and I could hear water dripping in the chimney breast and water started to drip from ceiling in our downstairs living room just where the chimney breast is and the wall + skirting boards in the bedrooms upstairs against the chimney breasts have high readings (bought a pinless damp meter reading to check) I’m worried about the skirting boards ! Anything I need to do once the chimney is capped ? will it all dry itself or will it be more likely to rot ? I’m not sure how long it’s been like that as only discovered that when started having drips in the downstair’s room