Well unfortunately, I noticed my top terracotta has a crack in it. I have a wood stove in basement, and I only burn seasoned oak wood. I don’t have a moisture meter, but my wood is three years old now. These are some pics I just took when I got off work. Is this ok? can I still burn the rest of winter? Just asking for some help. I really don’t know, I was thinking since it was at the very top of chimney I’d be ok.
You could clean it up and hit it with some mortar… 2000ºF Fireplace Mortar - RUTLAND Products Question is whether that is an indication of what the rest of the chimney is like. . Cracks further down could be disasterous in the right situation. it’s tough to say what the right answer is.. if you burn dry wood, and aren’t prone to a chimney fire, you could be good.. but one chimney fire, or a case of carbon monoxide leaking into the structure, and you could be in a pickle pretty quick.. not to mention a denied insurance claim for using a known to be damaged chimney. might be worth a whole chimney inspection, or might be best to line the chimney with a stainless steel flex liner.. what kind of stove are you burning? When was the last time your chimney was inspected?
The previous owner said he had the chimney inspection and I was good. I got on the roof myself, and sweep the chimney with a brush. That was 2 years ago on the inspection, but everything looked good then, and I didn’t notice a crack.
Interior or exterior chimney? How many floors is the house? Do you have a copy of the inspection report? I think the standard now is to use a camera to inspect the inside of the chimney. I’m not a pro, but I think any cracks would put it out of service.. loos like that stove has an 8” outlet from what I looked at online. Looks like a big stove. Personally, I’d do a stainless liner.. just one man’s opinion.
Interior, and just one floor then the attic. Yes you’re correct on the stove, and it’s a pretty good size wood stove for sure. It’s my main heat source, just wondering if I could get bye this winter. But then again, I’m not a gambling man…….that’s why I reached out to you guys. I’m sorry, I asked my wife on the inspection for the chimney and she can’t find it.
Yeah, this is a tough one...hard to tell much from just that one pic...might be a hairline crack, might be worse...and without a full camera inspection of the whole flue, its hard to say how risky it is to continue using....for me, part of my decision process would be how clean my stove burns...if I have good dry wood and I know my stove burns clean and there is never any buildup in the flue, I might be temped to run it just long enough to order a liner and insulation kit. What is the ID of the flue Hall84 ? If its about 8x8", or bigger, an insulated liner should be a pretty easy install...smaller than that can be done, but it gets trickier.
My thoughts are, if it's cracked at the top where you have little heat I would be curious of the remainder. I would just drop an insulated liner in place for safety first. At minimum I would have another inspect done if you forgo a liner.
Thank you guys, we looking into getting the stainless liner. It just doesn’t set well with me having that crack. We have shut down the wood stove till we install the liner. Once again I really appreciate for all the help and experience.
I can’t say for sure, because I haven’t measured the ID. But it looks like 8x8…….I was going to measure after work. But bye the time I got it was raining.
As long as you don't have any major offsets, or joints where a bunch of mortar is sticking out, you should be able to get a 6" liner with insulation down an 8x8" without too much trouble...if it is much smaller than that, or you have reason to believe that there may be some offsets, or other obstacles to getting the liner through, you may want to consider a "pre-insulated" liner...they are SS inside, an insulation layer, then another aluminum liner over the outside...they are generally just a touch smaller OD than a standard liner with insulation, plus they will take more abuse going in, if you have a flue that want to put up a fight. The last one I put in was a pre-insulated and it went in pretty smooth...I didn't really need a pre-insulated, just got a great deal on it from a vendor that was having a clearance sale...too bad they got bought out now...
Hopefully tomorrow after work I can report back with ID. It’s no offset or mortar sticking out. Pretty smooth all the way down
I've heard that regionally there can be variations in typical or "standard" sizes...dunno, no personal experience with that...
All I’ve seen were 8x8 (which is more like 8.5x8.5 OD, 6.5 ID, but folks call it 8”), 8x12, 12x12, 12x16, 16x16…..
