smoke chamber parging

[pyromania]

Hi,

Our new house has a newly constructed masonry chimney that serves the basement and main floor (two flue) with open wood burning fireplaces. I just had it inspected by a chimney sweep and there were a few problems with construction. The one that concerns me the most is that the smoke chambers are made of concrete block and are not parged. My questions are: How important is it to parge the smoke chambers? Is not parging a fire hazard? Can the concrete block withstand the heat over time? The fireplace performs well with a good draw.

 

[begreen]

It looks pretty smooth already. Parging with cement or with refractory cement is not a fire hazard.
bholler may have more comments on the design and materials.

 

[bholler]

I would probably parge it with chamber tech

 

[pyromania]

Thank you for your replies. Even though it is currently smooth, the chimney sweep made the comment in his report "the chamber is built with block, which is not fire rated." Sounds dangerous. I'm not familiar with the heat tolerance of concrete block or typical smoke chamber temperatures. Parging should help, but seems like a big job getting up there now that the iron throat damper frame is mortared in solid. I will investigate getting it parged.

 

[begreen]

Who built this fireplace chimney?

 

[pyromania]

Who built this fireplace chimney?

My house is only a few months old and still covered by the builder's warranty. So from my perspective, my builder built it.

In my opinion, it is a beautiful fireplace that draws well and has really nice fires. It is disappointing the chimney sweep found problems. I know I can always put in an insert, but I much prefer to keep it looking and functioning like it currently does, as long as it is safe to do so.

 

[begreen]

The concern posed seems to be whether it was built properly and safely, thus the question. I'm not judging because I haven't seen this kind of fireplace work done before. It does seem that one should not have to correct or finish the builder's work, especially if safety is involved.

 

[bholler]

My house is only a few months old and still covered by the builder's warranty. So from my perspective, my builder built it.

In my opinion, it is a beautiful fireplace that draws well and has really nice fires. It is disappointing the chimney sweep found problems. I know I can always put in an insert, but I much prefer to keep it looking and functioning like it currently does, as long as it is safe to do so.

Smoke chambers need to be parged or built with firebrick by code, make the builder fix it