We bought a house in the fall of 2010 here in CT. It has 2 chimneys. One between the family room and attached garage that has 2 flues, one for the oil furnace in the basement and one for a fireplace in the family room (which I don't think has ever been used). On the other end of the house is our problem. There is an exterior chimney which fed a wood stove in the basement. There was always a slight smoke smell in the basement, but as it was late summer when we saw the place, it was pretty light and didn't bother us. As we got into fall and started closing up the house the odor got worse and worse. Life was busy, wife was pregnant, so we just left it alone and didn't burn any fires last winter, and didnt go into the basement much. The odor continued, sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker, I assumes varying with humidity. When the spring rains came, I noticed water in the firebox behind the wood stove. Its slowly gotten worse, to the point where it was enough water to spill out of the firebox onto the floor (luckily tiled).
A couple months ago, I called a chimney sweep to have the chimney/wood stove cleaned and inspected. Turns out the wood stove, which looks to be a converted coal stove, was not properly installed. The previous owner took a piece of flu pipe like you would have on a furnace, inverted it, and shoved it up the flue a foot or so. It was unclear when it had last been cleaned. The insulation around the pipe was soaking wet. The sweep said we had stage 3 creosote and need a deglazing. He took some pictures to show me, and broke off a couple pieces of creosote, maybe an inch thick. I stuck my head in there and saw what he saw. He sort of dismissed the smell, saying its was because the chimney was horribly dirty and wet. At that point, he called his supervisor, talked for a few minutes, and came back to me. He said they could do the deglazing and put the stove back, but that it was not properly installed and recommended that we not use it. I talked with him about putting in a liner, he gave me some ball park costs, talked with his boss and told me that they would do the deglazing free if we purchased a new stove and a proper stainless steal liner from them. I said we would think about it, he gave us his card and didn't charge us anything for the 45 minutes or so he spent at the house. Since then, I removed the stove (put it in the shed), and stuffed a piece of insulation the flue. The smell is till pretty strong, and water still comes down the flu (it is capped at the top). No water comes down the other chimney even though that one does not have a cap on it!
Soo....I have a three goals. First, stop the water from coming down the chimney. Second, stop the smoke odor. Third, have a usable wood stove.
Weather I call the original sweep or another, what do I need to ask him to do? Googling my way around, I see a lot of water issues being caused by crumbling/cracked crowns? So I need to get him up on the roof I assume? What typically causes the smoke smell, bad drafting? How does this get solved other than opening a window and freezing the basement and all my pipes? Will putting in a proper liner help the natural draft? Should I tear down the chimney..is that the only way to solve the problem? Help!
A couple months ago, I called a chimney sweep to have the chimney/wood stove cleaned and inspected. Turns out the wood stove, which looks to be a converted coal stove, was not properly installed. The previous owner took a piece of flu pipe like you would have on a furnace, inverted it, and shoved it up the flue a foot or so. It was unclear when it had last been cleaned. The insulation around the pipe was soaking wet. The sweep said we had stage 3 creosote and need a deglazing. He took some pictures to show me, and broke off a couple pieces of creosote, maybe an inch thick. I stuck my head in there and saw what he saw. He sort of dismissed the smell, saying its was because the chimney was horribly dirty and wet. At that point, he called his supervisor, talked for a few minutes, and came back to me. He said they could do the deglazing and put the stove back, but that it was not properly installed and recommended that we not use it. I talked with him about putting in a liner, he gave me some ball park costs, talked with his boss and told me that they would do the deglazing free if we purchased a new stove and a proper stainless steal liner from them. I said we would think about it, he gave us his card and didn't charge us anything for the 45 minutes or so he spent at the house. Since then, I removed the stove (put it in the shed), and stuffed a piece of insulation the flue. The smell is till pretty strong, and water still comes down the flu (it is capped at the top). No water comes down the other chimney even though that one does not have a cap on it!
Soo....I have a three goals. First, stop the water from coming down the chimney. Second, stop the smoke odor. Third, have a usable wood stove.
Weather I call the original sweep or another, what do I need to ask him to do? Googling my way around, I see a lot of water issues being caused by crumbling/cracked crowns? So I need to get him up on the roof I assume? What typically causes the smoke smell, bad drafting? How does this get solved other than opening a window and freezing the basement and all my pipes? Will putting in a proper liner help the natural draft? Should I tear down the chimney..is that the only way to solve the problem? Help!
