New Member - Chimney Repair Question

[Lastchancewoodshop]

Good Morning Everyone,

I've been lurking for awhile especially while we lived in an HOA with no woodstove possibilities. Fortune smiled upon us and my family and I are once again in a home where we can have a woodstove. Or in this case, a pair!

We've got a 20 foot exterior chimney that serves 2 different fireplaces, one in the living room and one in the basement. I had a sweep come inspect the flues. They are in good condition and look as though they have rarely been burned despite being nearly 60 years old. The crown is a different story.

I plan to line both flues to serve a Jotul F3 in the basement and an as yet undetermined (leaning Jotul 550 insert) wood burner in the living room.

With that background, here is my problem:

First, the flue tiles are flush with the top of the chimney. Second, the living room flue was built with two 8x12 tile runs as opposed to one large one.

Let me preface by saying that I occasionally (often?) overthink things. Here is how I plan to address the crown:

Is this the proper way to fix this issue or should I break the 8x12 tiles out of the chimney altogether so that I can avoid using an oval liner?

The living room flue is a straight down with minimal misalignments and mortar drips. The basement flue jogs to the left but has a lot of space with which to work.

All warnings, advice, and criticisms are greatly appreciated.

JD

 

[begreen]

Has smoke smell in the basement when a fire is buring been an issue? If so it would be good to extend the fireplace chimney while correcting issues.

 

[stoveliker]

An insulated 6" liner should fit in an 8*12 flue, so if the flue is clean, and straight, there seems to be no need to break it out, imo.

 

[Lastchancewoodshop]

Has smoke smell in the basement when a fire is buring been an issue? If so it would be good to extend the fireplace chimney while correcting issues.

Begreen, I'm not sure yet. We've been in the house since August. There is a set of gas logs in the living room but nothing in the basement other than an open hearth. Can you expound on what you are asking me? How much of a height offset does one need between the two flues?

 

[begreen]

Back siphoning of smoke between flues of equal height is pretty common due to lower pressure in the basement. The remedy is to elevate the main floor flue by 12-18".

 

[Lastchancewoodshop]

An insulated 6" liner should fit in an 8*12 flue, so if the flue is clean, and straight, there seems to be no need to break it out, imo.

Stoveliker, I measured the inside dimensions of the flue at around 6.5"x 10 or so. If I wrap the stainless steel flex pipe with the insulation and mesh, I was thinking I'd be around 7" and some change. What am I missing?

 

[begreen]

An insulated oval liner can fit. One system if it is a is DuraLiner. They make all the fittings for their oval pipe including the conversion to 6" round at the damper area. It's insulated and 4 5/8" x 7 5/8" OD.

Do you already have a Jotul F550 insert? They haven't been for sale since 2020.

 

[stoveliker]

Stoveliker, I measured the inside dimensions of the flue at around 6.5"x 10 or so. If I wrap the stainless steel flex pipe with the insulation and mesh, I was thinking I'd be around 7" and some change. What am I missing?

I thought you were listing the inside dimensions of the clay flue.

 

[Woody Stover]

Sounds like a plan. A new crown can extend out and keep weather off the top rows of bricks.
I replaced four courses of brick on my re-crown. I ran out of good weather, and my mortar mix wasn't too good apparently, because the concrete around the stove flue was eroding in under 8 years. I put some ChimneyRX coating on it a couple months ago to keep the water flowing away from the clay tiles.

Post in thread 'Time for a new chimney crown.'

Sep 1, 2017

your brick are already modern brick not old soft ones. For a roof line up rebuild and poured crown you would be looking at around $1500 here.

The guy I talked to, a well-regarded brick company here, quoted me 3K for the roof-up rebuild, so I went ahead and tore off the top four courses last fall. I was running out of warm days so it ended up being somewhat of a rush/hack job. I know there are ways to do concrete in colder weather, but I was having trouble just working with regular concrete when doing the brick work. It was slow going, me being a first-timer.The crete would start...

• Woody Stover

• 

 

[begreen]

When recrowning, be sure to wrap the flue tiles before pouring the concrete top. This is to provide slippage for the flue tiles expanding and moving when heated up.

 

[Lastchancewoodshop]

An insulated oval liner can fit. One system if it is a is DuraLiner. They make all the fittings for their oval pipe including the conversion to 6" round at the damper area. It's insulated and 4 5/8" x 7 5/8" OD.

Do you already have a Jotul F550 insert? They haven't been for sale since 2020.

Begreen, I don't have one yet. I've seen a few in the used market that aren't too far from. We've owned a Quadra fire 5100, a Jotul F500, and an F3. But none of them followed us in our various moves. Our hearth opening is 34"x44" which looks to be just a hair too big for the 550 surround. That's another issue to solve.

 

[begreen]

It was a nice insert. The last issue is easy to fix.