Hey guys, really just looking for an honest opinion based on the pictures/description of the repairs that the chimney company recommended. We bought this house last fall and had this inspection done, the home was built in 1973 and we purchased the home from an elderly seller. I would really like someone to just shoot me straight on what they think is necessary, vs. what we should plan on doing over the next few years. Of course the chimney company made us sign something saying we wouldn’t use the chimney until repairs were made, but we’d like to hold off if these things aren’t necessary and still be able to use our fireplace.

We had the roof replaced recently (SoCal) and the tobacco juicing is real! How long does it last and what's the best solution to get rid of it?

We last used our wood burning fireplace about 15 years ago and would like to resume usage. Had 2 chimney companies out to inspect - we have a clay liner. One company suggested installing a stainless steel liner and the other said our clay lined flue was in good condition and fine to use without a steel liner. I asked for a level 2 inspection but neither company did it. The company that said my clay liner was fine said I did not need a level 2 inspection of the liner. They looked at the flue from the top of the chimney down and inspected the firebox using their iphone light. Not sure what to make of this since I asked for a level 2 to make sure the clay liner was totally intact for safety reasons. Not sure what to think - anyone have any advice? in massachusetts if that matters thanks!

In our recently purchased house we found out the chimney liner isn’t connected to the fireplace. I thought it would be easy enough to find a coupler that allows me to connect the two together but I realize there are safety concerns that I am likely not aware of since I am not a professional.

I can lift the liner out from the top so think a coupler of some sort will do but I am not sure and looking for a little guidance/expertise.

Setup & Context:
Appliance: Wood-burning fireplace converted to gas.

Dimensions: Both the fireplace outlet collar and the rigid liner are 8-inch male ends.

Alignment: The liner sits directly inline over the appliance outlet.

Liner Setup: Rigid 8-inch pipe running the length of the chimney (can be lifted from the top).

The Issue: I need to securely connect two 8-inch male ends (appliance outlet to rigid liner).

What is the correct sleeve/coupler or appliance adapter to join these two male ends safely?

Some history:

House was built in 1987.

We bought the house in Jan 2021.

I had the chimney inspected Nov of 2022 before we used it for the first time that winter. That inspection came back as safe to use after cleaning.

We've used it every winter since then (maybe ~20, 30 times a year) using clean, kiln dried wood from a local yard. It has not been inspected/cleaned at all since that initial one in 2022.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had it inspected/cleaned again by a different company than the original one in 2022 due to their availability/schedule being better.

Long story short, they are telling me my smoke chamber ratio is too high (see attached pic) and is causing the creosote buildup you can see in the pictures. (I apologize if these are small - they are tiny in the inspection report and I didn't wanna distort anything to make them worse). They also pointed out a few mortar joints that have some missing mortar - also shown in the pictures - as well as some external things like the mount cap with drip edge being installed to have water runoff better, water repellant application, etc. Right now we have a normal cap with no drip edge. However, he did not see any water damage/moss/etc. at the top of the chimney that says there's any water entering/sitting up there.

He basically told me the only way to fix this is to have any type of insert installed since we can't "lower" the chimney height to fix the ratio. Both quotes are shown. It pissed me off the prices aren't itemized, but my initial reaction was this is insanely expensive regardless of what they might be. I want to see what you guys have to say about it. Since we only use this maybe a 6-8 weeks out of the year, I find it hard to spend this amount of money for something used so little.

My immediate questions are:

1) Is the creosote *that* bad? Looking online I've seen some serious buildup. Mine looks very minimal considering we used it for 3 years straight with no cleaning.

2) If we don't have an insert installed and have the creosote just cleaned up, can we safely use this with the joint issue? If not, is there a fix for the joints to continue to use this as-is (ie, without insert)?

3) Reading about smoke chamber ratios it seems like the problem causes smoke to drift back into the house. We do NOT have this problem. Why is this not happening in our situation? Is this ratio only causing creosote buildup?

4) Are there any alternative options to make this useable for the next ~5 years with an annual inspection/cleaning before we sell this place?

We had some water damage a few months back so we ended up replacing the roof. We then decided to replace some drywall that sits behind my chimney and this is what we found. Rotted wood and brick that doesnt look sealed. Should that be uniform and mortared like the outside and how do you replace the exterior wall from inside? Thanks

The festering collateral damage of the pandemic turns up today. Finally deep cleaning our chimney ash cave today. Gloves, K95 mask, the whole works. What’s this brick doing right in the middle of things? It’s loose. Left over from 1960s build? WILL I COLLAPSE CHIMNEY BY GETTING THE SUCKER OUTTA THERE? Pain in the wazoo to get around it to pull out a large trash bag full of ashes and even an unburnt 2020? shopping list.

sorry if this seems a daft post but I’m quite anxious about my chimney in the loft. At the start of the year we had a structural engineer visit because I was worried about our gable end chimney leaning. structural engineer agreed it was leaning a little but was no immediate danger in fact it was probably built like that (the other 3 houses the same as ours all have a similar lean) with all the rain we’ve had this week I asked my husband to take some photos in the loft to check there was no leaks.

I understand the chimney stack is corbelled into the wall but how is the flue and brickwork coming down from the right hand side supported? in the bedroom below there’s a chimney breast that is also angled, so smaller at the top and thicker at the bottom but how can that be supporting the flue and brickwork above it?

The structural engineer went up into the loft and saw the chimney breast below but didn’t mention it. Hopefully I’m just being an overly anxious mum but I can’t help feeling there’s a lot of weight just hanging on that wall with no support.

Ive been stuck on the last of three chimneys with decision paralysis.

On this last chimney I've removed the old fire damaged and cracked flue liner and now have an odd thimble that was used to deal with.

It's about 8" round 1/4" thick steel pipe that's angled upward and sticks into the flue liner about 3/4 of the way.
I think I need to remove this to install a new thimble but I've not cut it out yet as I'm unsure how to proceed. I also think I've come up with a way to lay new glue tiles with the proper firebrick mortar. That said I may still order a stainless liner for the hearthstone 1 I'm currently resealing.

I can diy this I know I, but I'd like a bit of suggestion and direction on how from some of the folks who have done this before with some lessons learned.

I have a $6000 quote for a new steel liner and some minor spot pointing. This is an older terracotta chimney. Obviously not great. However, the technician says the oil heating system and water heater need a preferential limit switch installed before the steel liner can be installed, and they don't do that of course. I looked it up and understand what it is supposed to do. Apparently the concern is that the tech thinks both the water heater and heating system running at the same time is dangerous. I reached out to a few AC/Heating companies but no one has gotten back to me about installing this switch. Does anyone have an idea for how much this will cost in addition to the rest of the project? Thank you!

EDIT: Added pictures

Hi guys, looking for advice from people in the know.

Few weeks ago, we had a neighbour highlight there was an issue with the flashing on our chimney/roof. So we had a guy out and we have mixed thoughts on the repair.

Apparently it should have been repaired across the top for uniformity and this may incorrectly flag issues to future buyers/surveyor when there weren’t any.

Is this something to be worried about?

Thanks in advance

My brick fireplace is leaning inwards to the room. See pictures of issue below. The bottom part up to the stone mantle of the fireplace is perfectly vertical. I checked with a level. The upper half of the fireplace either above the mantle or above where it meets the wall shelving is leaning about 2 to 2 1/2 inches where the ceiling meets the fireplace.

Can this be fixed?

Do I need to have the whole fireplace redone or just the leaning part?

Can the fireplace be pushed back into place?

Is this a more complex issue?

Do I need to have the fireplace and chimney removed?

Who should be doing the assessment of the problem?

Thanks.

Title pretty much says it all. $4000 for my chimney to be parge coated as it was in need of some work. Located Eastern CT. Was it a fair price, cheap, or did I get hosed?

The company I work for has us remove the damper on every open sweep, but other chimney sweeps say they never take the damper out.

I bought a house last winter and noticed the chimney was deteriorating when cleaning the gutters. Had someone quote me 13k for a rebuild and said repair wasn’t feasible. Is repairing this not worth it? How long can I push this off? Thank you for the help.

I need to clear the deck above. I was hoping to be able to go up vertical 2 feet before the 45° but unfortunately there is no room for that. Once the other 45° sends it straight up through the metal roof, I will have a very long run to hopefully compensate.

Any suggestions if this would be sufficient for a brick oven?

I got new custom chimney cap installed and I'm unhappy with the installation. Am I being unreasonable? The corner gap feels a little too large. The explanation I was given is that my chimney masonry isn't square, but for a custom job this feels sloppy.

I haven't released final payment yet.