Fireplace and Chimney Repair

First, it must be said that on almost any subject there can be opposing views and opinions. What one person has found to be true, or a method of repair that has worked well, another may have found a different approach. Indeed, this may be why Tiger Woods entitled his book, "How I Play Golf". And so, this is true of many other subjects including fireplaces. We are not trying to elicit a sea of conflicting comments, but rather, we are offering 34 years of experience, which we believe most home owners will find helpful.

Lets say you own a home that is about 150 - 250 years old. Your home has four stone fireplaces in it. Or rather, used to have four fireplaces in it, because 40 years ago someone came along and installed the furnace in the dining room fireplace. However, that still leaves the fireplace in the living room and the two fireplaces upstairs in the bedrooms. Wouldn’t you just love to be able to use these fireplaces again? So you dig through the Yellow Pages and find someone that agrees to come over and check things out. He arrives with a flashlight and a notebook. Removing the insulation blocking the flues, he shines the light up the first flue, then does the same with the second and third. You are informed that although these fireplace flues are not lined with clay tiles, they should be safe to use as there are no obstructions, or appear to be no missing bricks in the flue. You write him out a check for his consultation and inspection and now you can use the fireplaces with confidence, right? Wait, don’t light that fire!

Why? Because of the angle of sight from the fireplace floor to the top of the chimney. Let us assume there are no bends in the chimney. (Quite an assumption because it’s rare to find an old chimney that one can see from the bottom all the way up to the top.) Even if you could see bottom to top, this angle is not conducive to a fair evaluation. Let’s conduct an experiment to prove this point. If you stand outside and look at one of your house windows you can see the window opening in it’s entirety. You can see every part of the window. Now, go and stand at the corner of your house and look at the same window with a sideways angle. The window disappears. All you see is the brick wall surface. This is approximately the angle that one would see from looking up from the fireplace floor.

I learned this early in on in the fireplace repair business. Prior to taking a 200 year-old chimney down to the fireplace level we first inspected the flue. It appeared in fairly good condition looking up from the fireplace floor. However, it wasn’t far into the demolition when we discovered a 6-inch round stovepipe hole which had never been bricked up. And what was covering the hole on the outside? Wood paneling! This fireplace desperately needed chimney repairs before it would have been safe to use.

How, then, can an old chimney be made safe for use? Click here to read about the pros and cons of various methods of chimney repair.

It takes a qualified fireplace contractor to thoroughly and safely inspect a chimney. At Luft Construction Co Inc. we have the skill and experience to leave you feeling confident in our fireplace repair and chimney repair. Click here to read about our many years working on stone fireplaces and masonry fireplaces or click here to contact us.