New log home... fireplace woes

[Chuck the Canuck]

Well, go ahead and measure the house pitch, it is very important. Do you know how to do it?

I don't know how, but I'd like to know if you don't mind sharing.

Cheers

 

[Simonkenton]

Get a 2 foot level. You can use a framing square, but a tape measure will work as well.
We want to measure the pitch. This is, for every 12 inches the roof goes away from the peak, how many inches does it drop?

For example, on a 12/12 pitch, as the roof goes out 12 inches, it drops 12 inches. This is a very steep pitch and you could not walk on this roof.

So, hold your level with one end setting on the roof, the other end out at 90 degrees away from the peak.
Hold the level so it is level.
Measure the distance from the end of the level, measure down in perpindicular fashion, from the end of the level to the roof.
If you measure down 8 inches, then, as you go out 24 inches, the roof drops 8 inches. Divide by 2, you have a 4/12 pitch.

 

[Hogwildz]

Set the level anywhere against the roof, measure out 12" from where the level meets the roof, measure straight down(plumb), there is your pitch. It's not a 4 pitch, that is clear to see.

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Get a 2 foot level. You can use a framing square, but a tape measure will work as well.
We want to measure the pitch. This is, for every 12 inches the roof goes away from the peak, how many inches does it drop?

For example, on a 12/12 pitch, as the roof goes out 12 inches, it drops 12 inches. This is a very steep pitch and you could not walk on this roof.

So, hold your level with one end setting on the roof, the other end out at 90 degrees away from the peak.
Hold the level so it is level.
Measure the distance from the end of the level, measure down in perpindicular fashion, from the end of the level to the roof.
If you measure down 8 inches, then, as you go out 24 inches, the roof drops 8 inches. Divide by 2, you have a 4/12 pitch.

Thank you kindly sir, much appreciated!

 

[blades]

If your purchase was on a "where is as is" footing nowhere to go back to, so you need to check your self or have someone in the real estate trades check out your purchase contract. Generally if things are not caught before closing you are stuck with whatever unless there was a some sort of warranty policy. Depending on whom or what you purchased the house from there may be a window in regards to undisclosed faults. My experience is - if I didn't catch it prior to closing I'm stuck with the fallout ( got the tail feathers plucked a couple times) It is almost impossible to uncover everything that might be a problem.

It might be possible to save those stone? veneer facade panels for reuse (if that is what they are) if you are going to rebuild the works- properly, as they are a bit pricey.

 

[Rearscreen]

You have a pitched roof hitting a almost flat wide surface on a non gabled end. If you want to keep the chimney there I would build a bigger roof gable end up to the chimney. A flue exit is best at the top of a house for many reasons, one of which is that IF there is a leak it will be minimal and can be fixed without significant damage. At the bottom of a roof there is many square feet of water collected.

 

[Jeepasaurus]

Time for an update!

We had someone from a local fireplace shop come out and take a look. My plan was to take down everything above the roof line, put down new plywood, tar paper, shingles, and call it good. This would stop the leaking and give us time to research a wood burning stove. They agreed, the top of the chimney needed to come down.

So, that's what we did. A REALY good friend came over on Saturday to help with the tear down. Took two of us about 4-5 hours on Saturday to get down close to the roof line... basically to the flashing. On Sunday my dad came over and helped get the remaining flashing, and the cricket out and then help piece it back together.

Here is what we started with


Got the crown off in 5-6 big chunks and some of the field stone on the sides (north / south) and back (west).


Here you can really see the rot.. that was plywood and 2x4's at one point


Getting there... we took down the sides and back a ways, then pushed the front off. We used 2x6's to push the top (lots of leverage) and let gravity do it's thing. My wife took video of it coming down.


Our mess. You can see the large piece we pushed over / off


View from the ground


Got what was left of the plywood and 2x4's out of the way


There were four large pieces of angle iron (one on each side) up there for support. My best guess it was to help distribute the weight for the back side of the chimney to the bottom half of the chimney below the roof line


The triple walled stove pipe was persuaded out. What a mess.


At this point I don't just feel better about everything... it looks better. It just looks better because I know I'm fixing it the right way... and the inside of my house will not cry when it rains.


Start of Sunday morning... still a mess


It looks like there was a small cricket... and then a bigger cricket was added


Here you can see some of the roof joists don't look so good... we are reinforcing them


It got dark... funny how that happens when the sun goes down. Here you can see we reinforced the joists. The really bad ones got two additional supports. The "okay" ones got one.


Here's a pic of the plywood installed.. this was taken Monday morning.


I got tar paper tucked under the shingles and existing tar paper ... put down some boards and used some of the convienent rocks we threw down to hold everything down and in place. It rained yesterday and... no leaks in the house. Granted, it didn't rain hard... and if it was a driving rain it might leak a little. But, shingles are going up this weekend. Oh... and I finally got a dumpster, so I can move it all again.


It was a long two days... but totally worth it. It was around 80 degrees (felt like 100 on the roof). But it wasn't humid. We took a break every hour or so to slam some water and/or Powerade.

This weekend will be the removal of the fireplace and rotted wood from the inside. At least I won't be as hot working inside... next to the window AC unit. ;-)

 

[Dobish]

Great work! if you think you are going to put a stove back in that location, or a similar location, you might want to think about putting the roof support, flashing, etc there first before you reshingle. then you won't have to tear off those shingles and cut through them again.

if you are going to move the stove and the pipe, it might not be worth it, but if its going to happen sooner than later, it might make sense.

 

[xman23]

That had lots of water coming in from the top, and maybe ever ware else for a long time. The big decorative box chimney on the edge of a down slope roof are real hard to keep snow and water from being dammed up in back of them. I would skip the fancy stone and put back a class A coming out of the roof with the proper flashing collar. You won't have a issue keeping it dry.

 

[bholler]

That had lots of water coming in from the top, and maybe ever ware else for a long time. The big decorative box chimney on the edge of a down slope roof are real hard to keep snow and water from being dammed up in back of them. I would skip the fancy stone and put back a class A coming out of the roof with the proper flashing collar. You won't have a issue keeping it dry.

I agree a big box at the bottom of a slope is harder to keep water tight but if done right it can be done just fine. It needed more slope on the cricket and higher flashing is all

 

[Jeepasaurus]

It also needed the shingles going the correct direction on the cricket... some people's kids.
With a proper cricket height it would make more sense to someone roofing it, even an amateur. The shingles were laid going the same direction as the rest of the roof. So, water would rush down, hit the itty-bitty cricket, then the back of the chimney and the water had a nice little highway under the shingles... into the house.

We are going to keep it simple... Class A and done.

Local fireplace shop recommended an Opel unit. Zero clearance wood burning stove. Thoughts?
We probably won't be installing anything until next fall.

One last comment...
You guys have been SUPER helpful. This forum is great! I've learned a ton of what to do... and even more of what NOT to do from tearing down my old chimney. So, Thanks again for all the help

 

[bholler]

It also needed the shingles going the correct direction on the cricket... some people's kids.

I always just rubber any crickets I build or repair. Even with the shingles running the right direction there is still a risk of a leak. But if you are just doing class a it does not matter.

 

[begreen]

Congratulations. That was quite a mess to tackle, but it needed to be done and you did it. As for replacing, the RSF Opel is a decent unit. Will you be relocating it to the gable end to avoid hassles? Or would you consider installing a handsome freestanding stove instead with a flue system straight up through the roof?

 

[Jeepasaurus]

We are open to anything at this point. It will remain at the end of the roof though. Not a lot of surface area with just a Class A pipe coming out the roof... Properly flashed of course.

I like the look of a free standing stove. I just don't want it to come into the living room too much. We are probably looking at a year before anything goes in. So, plenty of time to look at people's installs on the forum. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated when we do move forward.

I did take out the fireplace and remaining junk on the inside of the house last weekend. I'll post up that mess when I have a better connection. (More pictures... Because I know everyone loves pictures.)