What to do about my Neighbor's fireplace?
Our neigbors recentlly had their fireplaces and chimneys “restored” . After months of leaking smoke through our walls and ceilings, they’ve gotten the flues under control. However, they now burn fires almost daily, and our walls heat up. The highest was 230 degrees, usually around 120 degrees. They continue to light fires after being made…
Our neigbors recentlly had their fireplaces and chimneys “restored” . After months of leaking smoke through our walls and ceilings, they’ve gotten the flues under control. However, they now burn fires almost daily, and our walls heat up. The highest was 230 degrees, usually around 120 degrees. They continue to light fires after being made aware of the situation. We’ve been bounced from Buildings Dept. to FDNY to Buildings again. Has anyone had experience with this? Does anyone know what the law is on fireplace insulation? Are flexible steel flue pipes legal for woodburning fireplaces in NYC?
my neighbor when they use the fireplace my place gets smoke i never use my fireplace i need someone to inspected them and fix the sitution looking for help.thaks terry
Your neighbor’s firebox may be partially
on your property. If it is, problem solved.
Check your property survey to see where
the property line is.
We had our fireplace rebuilt very carefully with a new firebrick firebox and a new terracotta flue that sits within the original chimney. In many brownstones the fireplaces were NOT designed for the high heat of a wood burning fire. Often times they were purely decorative — the beautiful iron summer grilles acting as registers for a forced hot air system fueled by a coal-burning furnace in the cellar. The fire risk to you and your neighbors comes from several sources: the chimney itself and also (often overlooked or just not known about by homeowners) the wood joists that may run directly under the firebox and rest in your party wall! These could ignite if the temps get high enough. On the other hand, they may dead end at the hearth. But you should assume the worse. I have a couple of suggestions for how to proceed: i) Have your lawyer send them a letter threatening legal action. Whether you plan to follow through or not, sometimes this is enough to stop people in their tracks and get them to re-examine their behaviour. ii) Call 911 and tell them your wall is so hot you are worried there is a chimney fire (true, right?). The Fire dept will arrive in minutes, sirens clanging, firefighter ready to break down the neighbor’s front door with an axe etc, and scare the bejeezus out of them. This may knock some sense into them! If you are unwilling to do this, go visit your local firehouse and ask what they would advise. iii) The DOB should be able to demand an inspection of their house if you provide enough information, eg you know the flue is only flexible steel, not terracotta. Good luck!
You may be right that plaster doesn’t burn easily, but, yes, floorboards can, as can the wooden lathe and studs in the wall that supports that plaster (and which has had 100-plus years to dry out). Have you invited your neighbor over to feel your 200-degree wall? God knows that would do it for me–that would freak me out. Please update if you manage to find the right city agency–this seems like a building-code issue that is discernable without even entering the offender’s apartment, which is to say, citable. Good luck again.
I do know that there is only one course of brick between their fireplace back and us. Essentially the back of their firebox and flue is our wall. Plaster can’t burn, but wooden baseboards sure can! Their fireplace guy did install new fireboxes made of firebrick, obviously there isn’t enough insulation. I believe the depth of the fireboxes was an issue for them, so I’m sure they didn’t want to decrease the depth by leaving space between the firebox back and our wall. The whole project was done on the cheap, in my opinion. The most troubling aspect for us is that they continue to use the fireplace nightly, while fully aware of the problem. We’ve yet to find a city agency willing to help us,and lawsuits are expensive.
Do you know how your neighbor’s fireplace conversion was done? Specifically, whether they added a course of firebrick, or something like that? I’ve read that the party wall between some of these houses is only a course or two thick. I’m gonna do a conversion to wood-burning, too–but I’m going to be damned sure it’s completely safe. And I’m surprised to find so little dialogue here about this issue–I’ve hunted. Seems to me life with a fireplace is a veryyy nice thing, but you absolutely can’t do it without being absolutely sure you have the safest possible installation. Good luck.
I have no useful information for you but I just had to reply to tell you that this sounds so dangerous and just can’t be right. I hope you are able to find the right agency to help you address this.