On Apr 17, 1:59 pm, 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?

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?

Many thanks!

David in Toronto

Firstly a chimney that's 65 years old, can still be OK.
When a chimney is designed and built, the designer has a particular
size and type of fire in mind along with the type of fuel that will be
burnt and therefore the heat that will be generated.

If subsequently the correct type and size of fire is used along with
the correct fuel all will be OK.

The problem comes with chimneys that are designed with one fuel in
mind, when subsequent owners burn unsuitable fuel, possibly wood at
the wrong temperature, possible due to the wrong sized fire using a
different sized stove.

This can lead to cold burning fires, inflammable tar deposits left in
the chimney and chimney fires.