OT: Wood stove chimney problem

[Tom Sweeney]

One of my rental properties has a an older woodstove. It works well but I had the chimney cleaner out & he said the tiles inside the masonry chimney have some cracks. Said the woodstove should not be used till repaired or should be taken out & chimney capped.

Estimate to put a stainless flue in the existing chimney is $1,800.

That's a jointer, planer, bandsaw, router table, and DC +

I'm really tired of sinking $$$ into these properties. How hard of a job is this? Can a jack of all trades master of none kinda DIYer do it? Do you just assemble the chimney on the roof & slide it in then connect it at the bottom with an elbow?

How much can a stainless chimney cost?

Any thoughts or ideas on if this is a DIY project or better left to the pros? I assume if something is done wrong there are some liability issues.

[Dave Anderson NH]

The cheap and easy way out is to remove the woodstove and see what you can get for it on the second hand market. You'd end up with cash you could spend on tools. Unless it's a high end rental unit ,and it doesn't appear that way from your description, it doesn't add any appreciable value to the potential renting rate and could hold some serious negatives if you end up renting to slobs.

In answer to your question about installing Metalvent, Metalbestos, or any of the other double wall pipes, it's pretty easy if you have the ladders and don't have a fear of heights. The thing you need to check out is the pricing for this stuff. Over 23 years ago some of the 6" ID stuff went for $40 per 24" long section. I don't even want to think about the cost per length now. The $1800 quote might be reasonable as labor is not a major part of this type of job. Do some price research before you make any decisions Tom.

[Lee Schierer]

Either This old House or Hometime did what you are talking about. Seems to me they had to brak out the old tile to get the new pipe in. They had a rod with extensions and an eccentric mounted on the one end. The other was connected to a drill motor. When you rant the drill the eccentric you wobble and strike the sides of the tile, breaking it into pieces that fell down the chimney.

Didn't look tooo hard, but there might be code issues that would stop a DIYer to do it.

[Chuck Gramling]

If what you are considering is a liner for the existing masonry chimney, i think its hard to get someone to sell you the liner if you aren't in the trade. Shop around - when I got quotes they varied by as much as $2,000, and i did get a quote that was just over 1,000 for SS 30' or 35' i beleive, but that was a very low overhead, sole proprietor.

If you find a place to buy direct I would love to hear about it.
Good luck

[Lee Schierer]

I did a quick google search and came up with quite a few references for chimney liners. Chimney Liner

Don't know if these folks are any good but they appear to be selling what you are looking for. I also ran across this site, which strongly advises against DIY.

Don't do it

Good luck

[Tom Sweeney]

I did a google search after I posted, which is the opposite of what I normally do, & found a bunch. Thanks Lee! Chuck just do a google search for "chimney liner" lot's of them will sell to DIY'ers.
Dave, it seems to run about $60 per 4' section - a quick estimate going by memory on the chimney height, says I can do it for about $500 - so I'd have enough left over for at least a jointer, planer & Griz bandsaw

I don't know what I'm gonna do & since it's getting warm it's not on the high priority list. First choice would be to cap it & take out the stove - but then I'd have to listen to my tennants whine about it. They pay the rent pretty well but they do like to whine. Of course if they got mad enough and moved out I think I could get $50 a month more from new tennants - but it's tough to find good ones that take care of the place & pay the rent regularly.

It's a flat roof & I've been on it many times with no problem so I might DIY it. They even sell flexible liner - but don't think that's the best option.


Well thanks for the tips - I'll figure it out before next winter.

[Cam.Hedrick]

We heat primarily with wood since in my line of work a lot of kindling is generated and we own plenty of land to supply us with wood without over-cutting. Just the same, we installed a Rennai direct vent furnace so that we could go out of town in the winter without the fear of the pipes freezing and the labor of back drainig them. It also helps on those really bitter nights to supplement the woodstove. It is a good one too, a Vermont Castings Encore.
Oh shucks, LOML wants the phone...gotta get two lines!