Chimney Flue Liners
So I’ve been reading alot about scams with chimney businesses. But what should a flue liner cost (installed) for a 3- story brownstone?
So I’ve been reading alot about scams with chimney businesses. But what should a flue liner cost (installed) for a 3- story brownstone?
My Victorian Flatbush house, built in 1902, has 4 fireplaces that are decorative and used as heating vents only.
Not unreasonable to conclude that some “fireplaces” were merely decorative or used, as a previous poster suggested, as big heating vents to transfer heat from below.
My brownstone was built in 1894 with hot-water radiator heat. No real need for the fireplaces. There are two chimneys with three flues each. The brick is clean and orange down the length of each flue, so it’s unlikely that they ever burned wood or coal. No fireplace hearths — the original hardwood floors (including elaborate bordered parquets) go right up to the mantles. The fireplaces have been closed up for years, but I suspect that one of more might have originally had gas inserts. (Some neighboring houses on my block of the same time period still have the inserts in place and visible gas lines.)
maryann: I need to take and post some photos of the
upper fireplaces. They are peculiar to say the least.
Each has a flue (leading up) and each has a vent coming
in from below. None of the upper fireplaces has a firebox,
but rather each has a cast iron “summer cover” with
a cast iron “vent” that can be opened or closed.
You are certainly right that there are 4 flues on the roof, so i believe that each fireplace
does vent to the roof, but the vents coming up
from below have me baffled.
Finally, I am nearly sure that these fireplaces never
were plumbed for gas. Rather that coal was used
(there’s a coal shoot in the sub-basement that
is clearly part of the oringal house.)
Whoever told you that the upper fireplaces were only vents CERTAINLY should not be used as a contractor. This is beyond ridiculous. All the fireplaces in brownstones were meant to be used as gas-burning fireplaces. That’s why the hearths are so shallow. For a wood-burning fireplace the hearth has to be built out another two courses of brick (at least) to accomodate the smoke and heat. If you go up to your roof, you will see that the chimnies, in both the front and back of the house, are at least 3 or 4 feet wide. That is to accomodate the 3, 4 or 5 flues, depending on the height of your home. One flue for every floor. Remember the heating unit that you no doubt have, uses one of the flue lines, so that one will not be available to use for a fireplace. They generally used the first one from the left, which would be the garden floor for central heating. Sometimes they were sloppy and used the parlor one as well. Get a professional in there to explain it to you. Good luck.
I just bought a rowhouse and I would like to explore
getting the fireplaces working again. But on exploring the
fireplaces on each floor, it appears that only the
lowest one is meant to have a fire in it and the ones above merely act as vents. Apparently this is
not uncommon in 1850’s but I’ve never heard of it.
Does anyone have any references so I can read up on it?
Thanks!
I bought my chimney liner at that site- chimneylinerdepot.org – good service, great price. I agree with the last poster, but if your chimney is anything but perfectly straight this is not for the average do it yourselfer.
Have a look at this site:
http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/landing/
Looks easy to do yourself at much less cost, providing that your flues are like mine — a fairly straight shot up and down.
We just had our chimney relined today for $3500. 4 floors and a HELL of a mess- be prepared. They did finish in 1 day though. They repair all the brick but not any of the interior wall surfaces and they rebuilt our crumbling chimney on the roof. We got the same price quoted from 2 companies and we ended up using A & A, Chimney and Fireplace Experts.
carbon monoxide is not something you want to mess with if you don’t know what your doing…