WPB wrote:
Hello, all: I'd be grateful if someone could give me some advice on two
points.

1. Last autumn I had a chimney cleaner come over and he told me that I
needed a steel liner in my chimney (to the tune of $2,500). My house is
older--about 65 years old. He told me that I was taking a real risk.
Other people have told me that a chimney liner is completely unnecessary
and a waste of money. Opinions?

I'm just another "other people" -- why would you put any credence in my
response?

The problem is at least twofold here -- first, who are these "other
people" who disagree w/ the cleaner and what are their credentials and
basis for their opinion? Second, a cleaner isn't necessarily anything
more than the name--doesn't mean they're qualified for other work or
even necessarily that his judgment on the condition is correct, either.

Then, from here I can't see your chimney to judge its condition, nor
will any other respondent. Only you or somebody you hire can actually
look at it and determine whether it does have leaking joints or other
conditions that are actually dangerous.

2. The bricks in the "floor" of my chimney are all loose. That's bad.
But one guy quoted me $175 to repair them (get them all locked into place
and safe) and another guy quoted me $1,400 to $4,000. Quite the
difference! Who should I believe?

Why not ask them what they're going to do and why would cost so much (or
little)? Obviously then one guy is simply going to regrout in
place--which may be perfectly adequate if that's all that's wrong. One
would presume (but it's only a presumption since have no information
other than a price) that the other guy is going to take the floor up and
re-lay it and perhaps even replace some/many brick. Whether that is
necessary is impossible to judge from here.

Of course, the cleaner and the one fellow on the floor may just be
trying to take advantage of a situation, too, but there's no way to tell
for sure here.

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