My fireplcae flue is being used by an upstairs neighbor

Hi, Hoping someone can provide some advice. I live in a co-op brownstone on the parlor floor. Just had a chimney company over to line the flue to our fireplace for conversion to gas down the road (currently inoperable). We’re really bummed. The chimney guy said it should be an easy job, but once he started he “got stuck” clearing out the old line. He said that the top floor apartment is using our line for their woodburning fireplace. He told me contradictory info because he said that: 1) there’s no way they would have known this until they started work. Then, 2) that he can tell from looking at the chimney on the roof that we don’t have enough flues (we have 5 rather than 6) and that the one on the top floor is 2-3 times as big as it should be. I feel like the chimney guy should have alerted us to this potential problem. Now the other issue is that I really want a working fireplace but our neighbor is using our flue! These neighbors bought their apt with a “working fireplace” so I have no idea when the work was done– I suspect in the 80s/90s. So now what do I do about this neighbor using my line???

parksloperenovate

in Chimney and Fireplace 11 years and 3 months ago

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transworld | 11 years and 3 months ago

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Also fire code prohibits using one flue for two stoves/fireplaces, so sharing is not an option.

brokelin | 11 years and 3 months ago

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No judgment implied here, just curiosity: did you have the place inspected before you bought, and, if you were then thinking about ever someday making the fireplace usable for heat by any means, did you ask the inspector about this? I say this because I once bought the second floor in a four story brownstone coop, with the original gas firebox and mantel trim still there, (but the gas shut off of course) – the boiler used one flue, and two of the units had the fireplaces in the living rooms already converted to wood-burning (the other unit has the mantel and fireplace trim removed and the wall plastered over), and I can’t remember if I asked my inspector about it (at purchase time, the money to do any fireplace conversion seemed really far off), but if the flue business was obviously a problem from viewing the roof, I’d want him to have mentioned it. Maybe one has to start digging in the flue to figure it out? Becauase, wow, it would be really nice to know this stuff before purchasing, if inspectors can see a problem! Can they/could they have seen it? … I’m just curious, really, for the next time I buy.

NeoGrec | 11 years and 3 months ago

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If you neighbors’ chimney is over-sized and you are only planning to vent a gas fire (not wood burning — which is much hotter and much more smoke) then perhaps you can share it. If you need a second opinion, try Andre at A&A Chimneys who advertises on this site — he knows his stuff. Meanwhile, you’ll have to negotiate with both your neighbors and the coop board. But tread gently since, as you yourself point out, they likely bought the unit without any knowledge that their flue was infringing on yours.

transworld | 11 years and 3 months ago

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A bigger flue may be used by a wood stove. Because you are supposed to use triple wall chimney pipe, you can easily get TO a 10 in.+ diameter.

ventilated | 11 years and 3 months ago

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Call another chimney company for 2nd opinion. Big Apple Chimney is expensive, but good: http://www.bigapplechimney.com/ Your building’s boiler almost certainly using one flue. Top floor flue 2-3 times as big as it should be does not make sense.

Putnamdenizen | 11 years and 3 months ago

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Did the chimney guy tell you if it would be possible to re(re)configure the flues to accommodate both the upstairs neighbor and your wishes? Or would your wish for a flue rule out his/her use as a wood fireplace? If the former, I would suggest you get how much it costs and then go talk to your neighbor. If the cost is too much or if one use rules out the other, then perhaps this something to bring up at a coop meeting. It may be that a prior owner took over a communal property without authorization. Or you might just decide that it isn’t worth fighting over something which might be done “down the road.”