Fireplace/Mantle

I've used Certified Chimney Service, they are prety good. (They are from Jersey) But I am puzzled about your expectations. Is this a wood burning fireplace in an old building? If so, then if it was already upgraded with flue liner, you should be fine. If it was never re-lined, then don't make a fire, period. If the unit is being represented as having a functioning fireplace, Certified will give you the straight story. But all they do is look in with a flashlight. Wood fires burn hot, and usually don't deposit on the flue, like a wood stove, which is a throttled burn.

In my experience each fireplace had it's own flue and they angled their way up to the chimney on the roof. Check to see how many flue openings you have in your chimney and that will give you a clue. Each flue needs to be lined before you use the fireplace to burn wood. When I had mine lined 20 years ago (a big, dirty job - 150 years of soot) I had them line a flue to another potential fireplace that had been sealed off and removed. I can easily open it at some point in the future. Just because the fireplaces are located directly above each other does not mean that they share a flue.

What you are describing sounds like the old fireplaces, probably coal burning. Your house was probably built without central heating, so each room got it's own fireplace. You probably could take them down, starting from the roof and working your way down except for the fact that most of them have numerous flues running through them, usually one for each floor, including the cellar, so if you have a three story house and a cellar, you probably have four flues running through the chimney. There is a very good possibility that the one from the cellar is still being used to vent the boiler and hot water heater. Most of the older houses that I've seen have the kitchen in the back as well as the boiler, so they usually share the chimney. I opened mine up, relining one of the flues and putting a venting microwave over a range but could only fit a 30" stove into the opening. While opening the space up is not a big deal for someone who knows what they are doing, it's also not something that should be undertaken lightly by those who don't know what they are doing.

I would love to see them, particularly white ones. You can email me at andrecom@earthlink.net. Thanks, Lydia Andre