Chimney woes...

My house was built in the 70's and I have a side by side, ceramic lined exterior wall chimney, one for the wood stove that is in the walk out basement and one for the fireplace upstairs. My stove was Federal Airtight was having some flue problems so I took advantage of the downtime to peek in the chimney and noticed about a 6' vertical crack in the liner. Not a wide crack but a crack none the less. The crack was not thee when I cleaned it in the fall. I could use some suggestions on what my options are.

I would add that the chimney has a heavy cement cap on the top and an angle near the bottom. The dimensions of the ceramic liner are are roughly 12" by 10".

Corey said:

Just to be clear here, a single ' means feet, while double " means inches. So you are saying there is a 6' (6 foot) crack in the chimney which wasn't there last fall?!? My first thought is RUN! that is something major and structural. Maybe you mean inches?

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It's about a five or six foot long crack running down the liner, not very wide, but visible.

bholler said:

well you need a liner. and you said you have a 10" by 12" liner? I have never seen or heard of this I think you need to check that. and if you have a 6' crack that means it spans over 2 liner sections which means it is pretty significant. a crack in one section would be enough to require a liner but spanning two is definatly not good

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What size liner do I need? I have the large federal airtight and this is a two story chimney. There is a large cement cap on the chimney. It would not be fun to remove the cap or cut a huge hole in. How flexible is flex pipe?

bholler said:

what size outlet does your stove have? and yes you would need to remove or cut a hole in the cap. it depends on the type of liner you get but most are pretty flexible

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8"