Hello to any experienced woodstove chimney people....
We have got ourselves into a very difficult position by having taken
bad advice and done all the wrong things with a woodstove. Any
opinions & ideas much appreciated - we are very despondent at the
moment. (We also have very little spare money!! I'm retired)

Last autumn we installed a largish box woodstove (Jotul 602N) in a
masonry chimney (brick built in about 1935) having been told it was in
good nick and we could put the stove straight into it through a baffle
plate. We did. Because we needed constant background heat we burned
the stove near tight shut all winter - the worst way, now we know, for
creosote/tar build up. Made worse by a cold loft space the chimney went
up thro.

Result, tar seeping out of the chimney pointing. We got new advice and
were told we had no option but to brick the chimney up, never use it
again, and install a separate insulated flue.
Do we have any other safe options which will let use re-use our
chimney? Any way of cleaning up effectively? Lining with insulated
flexible liner - would that be safe in the circs?

Help please.....

I have a brick chimney and when I installed my woodstove, I was told it
would be less expensive to install a new separate stainless steel chimney
(to building code requirements) than to line my brick chimney. Also that 90
degree bends in the piping were not good, better to go straight up.

So that is what I did (installed new separate chimney). Had it inspected by
the building inspector and had it inspected by my insurance company. I now
have a safe woodstove installed to building codes and am covered by my
insurance should there be a fire.

If you don't install it to building codes and don't get it inspected by a
building inspector and your insurance company and then there is a fire as a
result of your woodstove, then your insurance company will not pay for the
loss!

It cost me several thousand dollars to "do it right", but I sleep better at
night.

Dave T Scotland wrote:
Because we needed constant background heat we burned
the stove near tight shut all winter - the worst way, now we know, for
creosote/tar build up.

You are supposed to burn Jotuls well damped: more efficient,
which means more complete combustion. Where I bet you actually
went wrong was in your selection of wood: the species and/or
curing. Perhaps also the diameter and length of the pieces.
Your UK address throws up a big red flag for me on all those
points.


Made worse by a cold loft space the chimney went up thro.

Nah. Worse would be a tall exterior chimney.


Result, tar seeping out of the chimney pointing.

You could have the chimney thoroughly cleaned and then lined
with a flue. Or eliminate the chimney.

Either way, you also have the option of installing a separate
flue for the stove.

Frankly, "tar seeping through the pointing" after a single
mild (*) winter's use suggests the chimney's condition was
already unsafe quite apart from the tar! Did the person who
told you the chimney was good do an *internal* inspection?

(*) mild, because you're in the UK. Your winters are balmy
compared to winters in the northern continental US.

Una

"Dave T Scotland" wrote in message
oups.com...

Last autumn we installed a largish box woodstove (Jotul 602N) in a
masonry chimney (brick built in about 1935) having been told it was in
good nick and we could put the stove straight into it through a baffle
plate. We did. Because we needed constant background heat we burned
the stove near tight shut all winter - the worst way, now we know, for
creosote/tar build up. Made worse by a cold loft space the chimney went
up thro.

Result, tar seeping out of the chimney pointing. We got new advice and
were told we had no option but to brick the chimney up, never use it
again, and install a separate insulated flue.
Do we have any other safe options which will let use re-use our
chimney? Any way of cleaning up effectively? Lining with insulated
flexible liner - would that be safe in the circs?

Your building code will explain why you have been (rightly)
told it is cheaper to add a metal chimney than to rebuild your
masonry chimney. Modern wood stoves are designed to burn
hot, thus require chimneys tested to withstand temperatures
of 2000 Fahr. (for X minutes: I do not remember how long.)

Your choice of fuel governs the generation of creosote.
Green wood and softwood (pine, cedar, spruce etc.) produces
much more tar than hardwoods (maple, birch, oak, etc.) We burn
wood for main heat, use only hardwood stacked and dried for
two years, and have the (double-walled metal) chimney swept every year.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On 16 Jul 2006 23:47:25 -0700, someone wrote:

.....Any
opinions & ideas much appreciated -

Do you have Chimney Sweeps around there? (And I'm not talking about
some singing cockneys like ina Mary Poppins movie.) Seriously, what
does your local professional say?


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

When I first experienced using wood burning stoves and fireplaces for heating
a huge old drafty Oregon ranch house I thought they were cleaned like a gas
bar-b-que. The labor intensive wire brush and scraper and a chimney sweep
every spring. Lucky for me a dinner invitation from a very savvy neighbor
showed me the error in my thinking. While cleaning up the prep mess I saw
her put the RAW potatoe peelings in the wood stove to burn. I asked why she
did that and her response was burning the peelings "cleaned" the stove, flue
and chimney. I then asked how that worked and her response was "I haven't a
clue but it worked for my mother, her mother and I suppose her mother too."
She also told me to put about three broken bricks in a burlap sack with a
rope attached and get on the roof in spring and pass it down the chimney to
be certain the peelings did their job.
Well the next spring I got on the roof certain the old experienced country
neighbors all had their cameras out to capture the new wanna be country city
kid in a complete state of gullability. I applied the brick burlap rope
chimney cleaning gizmo and to my complete surprizzzze the gizmo had not a
trace of the black oozie crud I thought it would have. I don't know how but
the spud skins work!!!

--
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