A 25 year old condo has a fireplace connected to a wooden chimney. The flue inside the chimney consists of some kind of metal liner which has corroded and needs to be replaced. The only thing the chimney is used for is the fireplace. What kind of liner can be used as a replacement in a wooden chimney? Any problems to watch out for in getting the old one out and installing the new one?
Refiitting chimneys requires a building permit. The permits office can answer your questions.
Generally seaking a Class A chimney is required for wood burners.
The wooden chimney you are talking about should be viewed as just a decorative surround. There must be good clearance between your wooden chimney and the Class A chimney.
The specific materials may vary country to country, but this Class A is an inner metal liner usually stainless Steel with an outer metal "shroud". There MUST be at least 1 inch of air clearance between the the sections and AYNTHING. This is important. One cannot put anything up against the Classs A metal chimney.
The pipe is made in sections 1, 2, 3, 4 feet long. Each section fits into the next and a 90 degree turn locks the sections together. A top is required which serves as both a spark arrestor and a rain blocker. The Class A is held in place from the bottom mainly using the lower terminationg support appropriate for your fireplace.
Class A Chimneys are not cheap a 4 foot section runs around US$250 to US$325 (east coast US)
And this is not something to "play with" get a professional. Additionally One would expect that your condo has guidelines for these repairs and may require you to do it thru the Condo management due to the safety implications.
Wood fires need only the 304 stainless steel. For burning coal the requirement is for the more expensive 316 stainless steel. Where as burning a gas fireplace only requires aluminum. But I would doubt that your Condo association would allow the Aluminum even for a gas log.
Hope this helps some.
T-Ulk
Excellent ideas and comments. Thanks very much for your thoughtful response. I will definitely check with the association to see what they say and also who is on their approved contractor list.
There is not such thing as a wooden chimney. What you are looking at is chimney chase, which is just a means of holding the flue out of sight. The metal flue is the real chimney. It may be a double wall, e.g., stainless steel tube surrounded by asbestos surrounded by an aluminum tube. In that case you will probably be required to get rid of the asbestos. More common is a triple wall using air space for insulation. The minimum spacing from the wood to the metal chimney is dependent on the construction of the chimney, but most likely somewhere between 2" and 6". There may also be stand offs and platforms to hold the chimney in place since most metal chimneys are made up of 4-foot or 3-foot sections that lock together. So you may have to take the chase apart (or at least sections) to remove the chimney and to install a new one.
You need to check with your jurisdiction (County or city building department) to find out what type of metal chimney is required. Also, are you sure that you are allowed to use the fireplace; many jurisdictions have imposed burning bans on stoves and fireplaces in the past 20 years, especially if air pollution is a problem in the area.
As the OP suggested, I'll go with Home Owners association. The county will probably set the minimum but the HOA may want more. Good point on allowed use of the fireplace. If isn't allowed, I won't need to fix it and can save a bunch of money.
Glad that helps some. regards T-Ulk
Recently there was a ban south of me for using wood fireplaces since it is a densly populated city with a growing polution problem. I decided not to fix my fireplace liner because of the ban being so close. Im sure it will spread to the near subburbs in no-time. I just plugged the flue with a chimney balloon and bought a fireplace candelabra for some occasional ambiance. I figure I could spend that $1k it would have cost to get a new fireplace liner in better ways that redoing a wood fireplace that i wont soon be able to use.
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