Forum Archive: Chimney

best recommendation for chimney clean out thanks. also opinions sought on duro logs

I just wanted to take a couple fo minutes to relate my experience with this company. I called them about a week ago to inspect my chimney because the wife and I were seeing alot of soot in our living space and we knew that after a fire next door that the fire department had shot water down the chimney and there was alot of soot in the bottom of the chimney. Richie came over and told us that the clays were no longer properly joined together and the mortar between them was bad and the only thing to do was to install a stainless liner.
He quoted a price which was a hell of alot more than I expected but was fair after comparing the stories of others, and told he he wo uld start work on Columbus day. His crew was very pleasant, they made a tent in the basement and got to work. Theythen discovered they had to break into my freshly rennovated living room as there was a curve in the flue, They came into my living space and made another tent and began the task of demolishing the chimney. They also covered every stitch of floor and all my furniture and they went into the room above and covered the vent to keep the junk from spewing out that vent. They got my hot water back on in two days as promised. They took all the garbage as promised, they got the job done as promised. Their crew was more than pleasant and honest, and they cleaned everything up very nicely , even in the basement they did it as well as they could.I am usually one to find fault with things but I was very pleased with these guys, and would highly recommend them .

i’m in bed stuy. i’m not sure if my chimney is ready for use. i’d like to use it as a cost savings measure but need to know who’s done it already and what to look for.

I just bought a limestone with a non-working fireplace and a decorative mantle. Small amounts of dust are coming down the chimney into the mantle. (Dust is red so looks like coming from bricks.) I am planning to call a chimney company to do something to stop the dust problem, but before I do, I am wondering what people think I need to have done to remedy the problem so that I will be able to knowledgeably evaluate recommendations by the chimney companies. Alternately, is there any problem with fixing it myself, if I can figure out a way to put something over the mouth of the chimney to prevent the dust from falling into the fireplace.

So I spent most of yesterday in the sun repointing a disused chimney on my roof. It was in very bad shape, loose mortar and many of the bricks spalled. THe repointing is done, but it still looks like hell (spots of old roofing tar, etc.

So the question: most of the chimneys in my row of a dozen houses are flashed with roofing tar. Can I do the same? ANd is it applied just by spreading an even layer of tar over the entire chimney? does it need anything to hold it on? Or should I do something else? I don’t think the chimney needs to be rebuilt since it’s not used, I just want to seal it off and make it not look so bad.

Thanks!

The interior walls in two rooms on the top floor of my brownstone show water damage. I believe the walls are uninsulated. These walls are exterior walls as no other building abuts them. It appears moisture is somehow getting through but there’s no roof leak. Could air be travelling up through the old fireplace and / or the space between the brick and the interior plaster wall and when it hits the roof line try to go through the interior wall?

How do I prevent the walls form peeling and showing water damage

Can any regular posters on here recommend a chimney company?

We are hoping to open the fireplace on the first floor to insert the stove in it and use it as an exhaust vent for the stove.

Anyone want to guess what that would cost, if the flue is not blocked and does not need relining?

Tenants in the next-door apartment building are complaining about smoke from my fireplace chimney. I don’t want to be unneighborly but I did spend a lot to repair my fireplace and chimney and it’s not my fault that their windows were built close to the property line. I don’t think this is a problem all the time but some nights it appears there are down-drafts pushing the chimney smoke in their direction. My house (and chimney stack) predates apartment building by more than 50 years. Any thoughts on how to handle situation?

We have a brownstone in Cobble Hill and want to install new flexible stainless steel chimney liners on two of the four fireplaces we have in the front of the house. We will have two additional flues that will be vacant, unused probably since the 1960′s, when they were covered. In one of them we would like to have an insert, with intake fresh air from the outside, to make it more efficient and avoid consuming heated air from the house.

Anybody has ever used one of these unused flues to actually bring fresh air, using one of the Fresh Air Inlet Kits for Fireplaces?

I do not see any problem doing that since the two working fireplaces will be completely sealed with the new liners and there is no chance to get any fumes from the two working fireplaces.

On the other fireplace, the one that won’t be a cast iron insert, we want to use a Rumford fireplace. We would also like to have a fresh air intake in this fireplace.

The photograph is from a renovation posted on the Brownstoner some time ago.

I would appreciate any educated opinion on the subject.