Liners insulate heat moving through the chimney, protecting flammable areas of your home's structure. They also protect flue masonry from cracks or crumbling mortar due to repeated heating and cooling. Cracks or damage can lessen the effectiveness of the liner, which make burning anything in your fireplace or wood stove risky.
Plus, if your liner is damaged, you may have a hard time passing a home inspection and selling your house until it's repaired or replaced.
In the "olden days," chimneys were completely unlined or only lined with clay tiles, which could crack or break relatively easily. Especially if you have an older home, an excellent first step is to have a masonry or chimney expert examine your chimney and assess its integrity.
Do you burn wood in your fireplace regularly? You should definitely have your chimney liner inspected as part of an overall maintenance plan performed at least once a year. Cleaning is a good idea as well: The products of burning wood, called creosote, can build up in your unlined or improperly lined chimney, and may eventually cause a fire.
Because it's hard to see into your chimney, you may be uncomfortable determining whether your chimney professional is accurately assessing your needs.
There are two options for confirming a diagnosis of damaged chimney liner:. See for yourself. From inside the house, open the flue and look up as far as you can. Cast-in-place liners are proprietary processes that pump mortar within the chimney to form a new flue. One method, illustrated at top, employs an inflatable bladder to form the flue. An alternate process, shown at bottom, draws a pointed bell up the chimney to form the flue.
Generally speaking, this approach offers all the advantages of clay flues, plus a couple more. Cast-in-place flues are virtually impervious to the harmful effects of heat, acids, and condensation, regardless of the type of fuel that is burned.
Temperatures inside cast-in-place flues are generally high because of their insulation properties, so they burn cleaner and reduce creosote accumulation. Expect poured-cement flues to last at least as long as clay tile—50 years or more. While a cast-in-place process can be less laborious and invasive than reconstructing clay flues, there are a number of different proprietary methods for casting.
In some projects, the cost of labor required can equal or exceed that for relining with clay tile. As always, the best approach depends on conditions specific to the particular job.
In no case is casting flue liner in place a do-it-yourself job. If the problem chimney has one or more clay flues within it, the installer will determine whether the tile can be left in place or needs to be removed. Determining factors include the structural condition of the existing flue and chimney, and how much space is needed based on the size and number of flues required.
Then, technicians insert one or more inflatable bladders from the heating appliance outlet to the top of the chimney.
Next, they install formwork at the base of the chimney and place spacers around the bladders to separate them from chimney. At this point, they pump a mud-like mixture of lightweight refractory cement and insulating aggregate is into the chimney until it fills to the chimney top. Once the cement hardens, the bladders are deflated, the formwork is removed, and any necessary finish work is performed.
The result: one or more structurally rigid, smooth, continuous, amply insulated flues. In a second flue-casting method—marketed under the brand names Ahrens Chimney Systems and Guardian Chimney Systems —technicians slowly pump mud-consistency lining material into the chimney as they draw a vibrating bell a pointy forming tool up through the cement to form the flue opening. Both casting methods have been used in Europe for more than 70 years, and in the U.
Stainless steel flue liners come in rigid and flexible forms and a variety of designs and alloys, making them among the most versatile liners.
Over time, these sections, as well as the mortar between them, break down. This is mainly due to soot accumulation high acid content or moisture. Moisture can penetrate the brick porous , come in from above the flue opening or from within with poor wood or gas fueled appliances.
When there is a break or breach in the lining, the flue should be lined for use. When you use your heat, exhaust and carbon monoxide gets released so ensuring that the by-products of combustion are removed at all costs. Similarly, heat and smoke from your fireplace can enter the home during an improperly venting fire. This increases the residence time the smoke spends within the walls and creates soot buildup. Excess soot buildup is flammable and is how a chimney fire is formed.
There are various types of chimney liners on the market and most depend on how you are going to use your fireplace or heating flue. Whether you go from gas to wood burning or vice versa, you must install a new chimney liner appropriate for that type of fuel and use.
The same rule applies to heating and hot water equipment because different materials are more suited for different types of fuel. Click here or call to contact us. Our trained staff can talk you through the differences and options for your specific needs.
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