Prity wood burner & the flue...

With the wood burner installed & the system filled we're left with a couple of small leaks & the question of weather to fit a pump into the hot water circuit....
However the flue is a whole other problem... the existing brick flue is no longer smoke-tight despite all attempts to find & fix the leaks... the morter is obviously so badly deteriorated in places we cant see...
Two choices... line the flue or install an external flue, the latter is second choice at the moment as there are bound to be some obscure anal regulation to comply with, so we decided to investigate the stainless liner option, first problem was cost... that aside, we began to investigate the route it would have to take... this is where this weeks problems began... a 5" dia pipe had been previously installed in the lower part of the chimney (probably when the lounge fire place was sealed?)
As we went further up & began to look at the stack itself the full horror of the problem revealed itself...

Finding a foothold was one of the problems

No tools required!!