Carbon Monoxide OVER AND OVER and no solutions - PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that fixes the issue.

Here are some more shots of the repairs.....

Now I see the third flue someone mentioned. It is loosely covered with a metal plate. That could certainly be a problem, right? They've been on my roof 4 times now and knew about the problem and no one mentioned that.

Is there something I can do myself with that?

No one has said if I have any rights about telling them to take it out.

If you still have smoke/co issues, try posting some drawings here. It'll help everyone understand the components/flues/intakes and their relative locations both horizontally and vertically. It's a bit hard to understand everything from isolated pictures.

Hope your extension works out ok.

If that plate is just loosely sitting up there. Get yourself some silicone, lift the plate off, clean the underside of the plate & the top edge of the tile its covering real good. put a nice 1/2" or so continuous bead of silicone around the top of the tile top edge, and set the plate back on.
Another problem I see, is the stack to the right in the photos, has no storm collar around it, and rain water can easily run inside along the pipe there.
Not sure what the straps are for from the old pipe to the new, but that looks kind of rigged to me.

One other thing I noticed:
The braces coming from the new extension of pipe, has one of the braces secured & screwed into the top plate of the stack next to it. Not the best set up I seen.
What is to keep it from pulling that top cap off in a high wind event? Your installer needs a kick in the ass.

From the photo it looks to be flat on the flue and it must be heavy enough not to fly off. I doubt that it would cause your problems. And yes we (I) am frustrated because it is a serious problem yet it's not rocket science. I'm hopeful the chimney extension will solve the case and you and your hubby can enjoy the wood burning experience. Just do one thing at a time till you are successful. Be safe
ED

The owner doesn't do any of this......he sends guys out. My husband about had a heart attack when he saw how they rigged it up there. I have never seen anyone with that sort of a rig on the top of a house.

I'll get up there and get that sealed up.

Thanks!

Not sure what sort of drawings to post. I'm going to hold on alternate solutions for a week and see if this takes care of it. Thank you!

How about an up date. Is the CO problem gone? Any cause or just several little things? I can't be the only one that is curious. Be safe.
Ed

OK, since the pipe was extended, we have not had a single reading above zero, NOTHING for this entire time. This is the longest we have gone without a reading. I'm crossing my fingers.

The fire seems a bit suffocated now and doesn't seem to burn as well as before, but as of today, I'm cautiously optomistic.

Thank you for all of your insights. It is unfortunate it took SO much and so long to get this fixed. I just want our family to be safe!

Karen

glad to hear it is working.

I would get a low level CO det. fast. The ones you buy in stores are garbage. Read the manual that comes with it, they don't even go off before 35 ppm of CO. 35 to 70 ppm takes several hours of continuous levels before it will alarm and if the levels go down below 35 the clock starts all over. Low level CO poisoning are the cause of many health problems that people aren’t aware of because they think they are protected with a UL listed CO det. Children, the elderly, people with health problems and unborn children are most susceptible to CO poisoning.

Our wood stove has now been removed from the home. After removal, we even ran the gas fireplace with the other chimney capped and ran everything possible for nearly a week to create another CO event and nothing happened. It was only with the woodstove.

So now my question is where to go from here. For the Wisconsin folks, who could I contact to get this done right or discuss my options?
We have 3 months of wood stacked for this fall, and I just don't know if we should be out there doing more at this point if we can't get this done right. Or what about an outdoor burner to heat my 30x40 studio and the house? THoughts? Help?

Thanks!

WI GIRL

So after you extended the chimney up higher you were still having problems? That's a shame, I never called you because I thought it was resolved.

It seemed to be resolved because we didn't have an incident for nearly a week, but then it happened again. The numbers were smaller with the incidents after that, but continued readings. I am so bummed. Now we have to figure out what to do next, with someone who will take the time to listen to what has happened and try to provide a solution that will keep our family safe. Not many options in this part of the state. No one around here has recommendations for people who they would REALLY recommend, either for fireplaces or outdoor burners.

Please get one of these!

http://www.aeromedix.com/product-ex...s_Model_1070?gclid=CIez94Tq3pkCFQWfnAoduk8EWQ

Isn't there some way to test the integrity of the liner? Judging by the amount of effort they used to jam the flex liner in there, it seems reasonable to me the liner could be damaged and the smoke/co drafting back into the house either down through the gas FP intake or through the spaces between the blockoff plate and the masonry.

If you are not near a bunch of houses just go with an EPA outdoor burner, maybe wood oil or wood gas if you like to vacation in the winter. Your home will be nice and warm, you'll have hot water for the house and hot tub or other buildings and a nice clean house. Check the other forums for heating ideas. Just don't locate anything outside upwind. Good luck and be safe.
Ed

if the extention helped for a week there must be an issue with the chimney /install it should be fixable wish i was closer but ct is a bit far from wi there must be another company to use but the one who did the first install.

We could do it, we are 2 hrs away. But we would not be able to keep coming back if there were continuous problems. I would be afraid there could be more problems and I would have to go out there a few times. Especially without knowing what was really letting the CO leak into the house.

still looking at the vent picture on your house. Did you ever turn off your air exchanger and see if the problem was still there ? I know ours runs 4 times a day or with demand, it looks like it could pull in the exhaust from your water heater. The test would be to turn off the hot water heater and shower elsewhere.
If your stove uses outside air for combustion I just don't see what the problem could be. We know you would have been ran out of the house by the smoke by the time the co alarm going off. I realize co is heavier than air and could (in theory) drop into the gas fireplace exhause, but it just seems unlikely. I hate to hear the stove is gone, but I don't think I could have slept soundly until it was, if it were me. A surprising number of people are killed every year because of co. I am amazed that everyone involved was OK with you staying there?


a very strange case though, please keep us posted


Jon

Well, I read every post . Unless I missed it somehow there`s still no proof that the SS liner is not damaged or leaking and no one has yet to lower a camera to check the liner.

At this point your primary concern is to find out if the chimney liner is good. That has yet to be determined.

+1

This is what the OP originally thought the problem was (her "gut" reaction, you should ALWAYS follow this!), and myself as well as several others mentioned this much earlier in the thread.