Water Leaking like crazy from my thimble!

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steve.karp

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Nov 29, 2011
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United States
Hi, I am new to the forum and am having an issue. I just moved into a house with a six foot field stone chimney. There was a corn burner when I moved in. I just had a United States Company 3000 installed and the chimney swept.

When the sweep was done, the soot was soaking wet. The guy who did it didn't know why. He cleaned it as best he could and hooked up my new stove.

Now about the chimney. I had new tar put on because it was leaking and ruining some drywall. The new tar did the trick and no more leaks. But when the sweep guy was on the roof, he said that there was a dummy flue next to my other 2 flues (I also have a fireplace in the basement). The dummy flue was filled with concrete but he was pulling chunks of it off the crown. He said something about maybe needing the crown sealed.

So the woodstove was hooked up for about a month before we used it. Within a couple hours of starting the stove, we got brown water that smelled really bad like smoke running out of the thimble and down the chimney. It got so bad that it was dripping out of the elbow on the stove pipe at one point. I let the fire burn out and also noticed new wet spots on the stone by my ceiling. It seems like I have a lot of water and have no idea what to do with it!

By the way, there is no clean out on this chimney either.

I attached some pics, and advice would be really appreciated!!
 

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Got any pics of the outside, the roof, cap area?
Looks to be running down the outside of the pipe, not real black.
With out seeing the roof area where the water is getting in, tough to troubleshoot.
 
Condensation, been there done that. What size is the chimney? New stoves put less heat up the flue compared to the older models. The gasses cool on their way up to the top and condense. An insulated liner keeps the gasses hotter thus eliminating that problem. It's a nasty problem and for us our house stunk. After lining it went away and performance increased.
 
I don't have any pics of the top of the chimney. But it is 6 foot wide and a total of 45-50' tall, pretty big.

All that is in there right now for a liner is the clay tile. The chimney sweep inspected it and said that there were a couple hairline cracks but it was in overall good condition.

I wondered if having the crown sealed would take care of the problem?

Also, the thimble that was there before (for the corn stove) had high temp sealant all around the outside of it, maybe they had the same problem. I haven't done that because I thought the water staying in the chimney was bad, but if I could do that it may help too.

Could the condensation cause water to come out of the stone by the ceiling about 6 ft away? There are wet spots on the stone and mortar there now too. I attached a pic of that.

Yeah the smell is absolutely horrible. My house is 6400 sq ft and every inch of it smelled. My wife is pregnant and she had a really hard time with it!
 

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It's bad stuff. You need a liner. If the liner is cracked, yes water can seep into the stone.
 
This chimney sweep does poured liners, but they are very expensive. I had another chimney sweep give me a quote of $1000 for an UltraPro liner. Do you know of a big difference between the two?
 
I'm no expert, but i'd find a way to seal up the area at the top. Your sweep said it was leaking and needed to be sealed...that's where I'd start. I'd hate to see you line it for nothing. Sometimes a dozen tubes of clear silicone will do the trick on sealing up the top of a broken up chimney. Make sure your chimney is finished at the top correctly and then get to work on sealing up the masonry problem. If you use paintable caulk you can paint with an external (UV) paint and prolong the fix. The problem is your masonry, not your chimney pipe..imo.
 
Based on the picture, the chimney is condensing. If the sweep said there are cracks, it should be lined. It's a safety factor as well as the liquid coming from the thimble will eat mortar. If it's leaking from the top that should be addressed. I don't know what price is good or not, but either a poured liner or stainless will work. Do you know the flue size in the chimney?
 
I guess I am thinking that it is both condensation and an active leak in the crown. When we bought the house (it was a foreclosure) there hadn't been any appliance ran in the chimney for 2 years. I had it swept and the soot was soaking wet, it plugged up his shop vac. There would have been no condensation since there was no heat running through the chimney but there was still water in the flue.

But we never saw water leak out the thimble until we started the woodstove last week. So that could be condensation now as well.

I attached a picture of what it looks like inside the thimble right now. The bottom is filled with water. The chimney sweep guy stopped over today and recommended sucking up all the water until it is dry and seeing if it fills back up from the water that's in the stone right now. He said keep sucking it up until there is no more and then run the woodstove and keep an eye on the level. If it fills up with water, it is condensation.

It's like $950 to have him seal all the cracks and the crown and $1000 to install a new liner and I really can't afford to do both right now.

Thanks again for the input!
 

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steve.karp said:
I guess I am thinking that it is both condensation and an active leak in the crown. When we bought the house (it was a foreclosure) there hadn't been any appliance ran in the chimney for 2 years. I had it swept and the soot was soaking wet, it plugged up his shop vac. There would have been no condensation since there was no heat running through the chimney but there was still water in the flue.

But we never saw water leak out the thimble until we started the woodstove last week. So that could be condensation now as well.

I attached a picture of what it looks like inside the thimble right now. The bottom is filled with water. The chimney sweep guy stopped over today and recommended sucking up all the water until it is dry and seeing if it fills back up from the water that's in the stone right now. He said keep sucking it up until there is no more and then run the woodstove and keep an eye on the level. If it fills up with water, it is condensation.

It's like $950 to have him seal all the cracks and the crown and $1000 to install a new liner and I really can't afford to do both right now.

Thanks again for the input!
Click to expand...

I hear you. $thousand here $$ thousand there. The house is always needing something. That's one of the good things about this site, lots of Do It Yourslefer's.
We learned because we had to.
That much condensation seems excessive. You in a high humidity area?
It may be that moisture in the flue got heated up to steam condensed on a cool section of pipe. Maybe running it hot for a few days will help dry it out. Just guessing though.
Good luck.
 
Yeah I'm hoping that sucking up all the water over a few days and then running hot will dry it out long enough to run through the winter.

I'm in Michigan. Last Friday was 62 degrees and sunny, yesterday we got a foot of snow. Par for the course.

I would be so much more inclined to do it myself it I didn't hate heights and my chimney wasn't 50' in the air with a 12/12 pitch roof.
 
steve.karp said:
Yeah I'm hoping that sucking up all the water over a few days and then running hot will dry it out long enough to run through the winter.

I'm in Michigan. Last Friday was 62 degrees and sunny, yesterday we got a foot of snow. Par for the course.

I would be so much more inclined to do it myself it I didn't hate heights and my chimney wasn't 50' in the air with a 12/12 pitch roof.
Click to expand...

12/12 pitch & 50' -;;- :bug:
Blinders & a harness if I went up there. :)

Don't look down. :)
 
A couple of years ago, I was sucking over 2 gallons of water a day from our chimney. After placing a liner it was gone. I feel your pain and hope the best.
 
You got a 50 foot chimney and a 6400 sq ft house, what did you buy a palace? :lol:
 
Thanks Laynes, I'll plan on the liner. When I sell the house it will be good to have that done too.

Yeah it's a 8 bed 4 bath huge house. It was a foreclosure and we got a heck of a deal. This is the third time in four years I've bought a house, fixed it up, and sold it. Sometimes I think I bit off more than I can chew on this one. This is my first experience with a wood stove.

There is also a finished walk out basement that has a fire king insert installed. The chimney sweeper called it a slammer because there is no direct fit on the back of the insert. That is gonna be fun to deal with next year too!
 
The photo you attached: the shiny black looks like creosote to me, not moisture, but you obviously are in a better position to judge.
 
So I sucked up all the water this morning, about a gallon or so. No more water leaked into the flue for several hours so I reattached the pipe and fired the stove. Within 20 minutes there was smoky water running down the chimney. I stopped the fire and took the pipe off. There was no water collecting in flue itself, there was water on the horizontal piece of pipe that the thimble slips in to.

That's where I'm at now. I really don't have the $1000 for the new liner but I'm not sure of anything else I can do.
 
I'm not sure there's much else that you can do. Look for any open areas that may allow extra air into the flue. If there's a cleanout make sure it's sealed well as well as the flue off the stove. I feel for ya, it's not a fun thing to deal with. The 1000.00 doesn't sound bad for an installed liner. It needs to be insulated due to the current cracked flue. Is the chimney an exterior one?
 
Yeah there is no cleanout.

The quote for the new liner included it being insulated, but now they want $300 more to remove the old liner.

It is an exterior chimney, run from the basement to high above the roof line.

Thanks!
 
Now about the chimney. I had new tar put on because it was leaking and ruining some drywall. The new tar did the trick and no more leaks. But when the sweep guy was on the roof, he said that there was a dummy flue next to my other 2 flues (I also have a fireplace in the basement). The dummy flue was filled with concrete but he was pulling chunks of it off the crown. He said something about maybe needing the crown sealed.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling your problem could be that dummy flue. I don't know how the chimney is constructed, but I wonder if the cracks at the top have allowed water to seep in that "flue" & soak all the way down inside the chimney. Then you fire up the stove & as the heat works on the the tile liner & the cracks expand enough for the water to travel into the stove flue.
Al
 
steve.karp said:
So I sucked up all the water this morning, about a gallon or so. No more water leaked into the flue for several hours so I reattached the pipe and fired the stove. Within 20 minutes there was smoky water running down the chimney. I stopped the fire and took the pipe off. There was no water collecting in flue itself, there was water on the horizontal piece of pipe that the thimble slips in to.

That's where I'm at now. I really don't have the $1000 for the new liner but I'm not sure of anything else I can do.
Click to expand...

Take in tenants for some extra income. :)
 
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