Did a liner instal today

Hunted till noon then helped a friend instal his 6 inch liner. Not quite the piece of cake I thought it was going to be. 6 inch liner. 12 inch square chimney. 4 inch stepped and offset damper. we ovalized 26 inches but that wasn't enough to get it thru the damper. Demolition bar and 8 lb sledge did the trick after trying just about everything else. Had to take 2 bricks off the front of the smoke shelf. took about 4 hours. 2 hours ago the phone rang. Another warm familyu enjoying a fire. Don't forget the tube of caulk when you start an install.

The 8 pound sledge might be a bit overkill here, how does one swing this inside a chimney anyway? :roll:

One drops it down the flue ! :lol:

-- Mike

Some pics would be nice.

I also did a liner install in August. I purchased premium material and did it myself for $300+. I am so glad I did. I have quotes from "qualified installers" of $800+. I am sure I did a better job than most of them. I did replace the self tapping screws with SS nut, bolt and lock washer. I tried the self tapping screws and felt that they did not get a very good byte of the liner even with the end insert piece.

I was able to cut a small piece out of my damper frame in the fireplace with a hacksaw. The pipe passes through then without a hitch. It was not easy in August weather to sit in the fireplace and do this with a hand saw but it ended up being a neat job.

I did not ovalize (is that even a word) my pipe. In fact I really wonder if the manufacturer of pipe would approve that process. Deforming the pipe must have the effect of weakening it.

BTW - I really enjoy reading this forum.

Best regards, Mike

is this true about the pipe being weakened if deformed?

My buddy got a 20 footer from the same place I got mine. he had been thinking there was something wrong with his wood. ( I doubt it....his wood shed would be the envy of anyone here, and it's all well aged oak and elm. During the instal we measured . 14 feet from top of the chimney to the smokeshelf. He had experience some terrible glazing issued last year and used those chimney cleaning logs quite successfully. He swept it out and had almost no glazing. This year he burned for about 2 weeks with the most horrible crazy looking old stove you've ever seen. He then bought a Jotul off ebay...only to discover that the firebox was too small for the wood he has. Since he has about 6 cords he decided that he would get rid of the jotul and he went the route of what his dad has been burning for 20 years. An old fisher. Had the outlet moved to the back instead of the top. I told him the disadvantages of an airtite but he makes his own decisions. we gave the chimney a good cleaning then we started the install. I don't have pictures since we were out hunting and drove straight to his place when were left the woods. just inside the damper, the front side steps backward 4 steps one brick at a time. The back edge has goes 2 bricks up then it's all smokeshelf. So we ended up busting out two bricks 1 brick depth (2 bricks side by side who's morter joint was centered in the firebox) from the front of the smoke shelfe to make it possible to get the ovalized portion thru the damper. We cut off the back notch of cast iron from the damper but other than that, left the damper intact. we tried a sawzal and only succeeded in taking the teeth off the blade with the brick. Tried mazonry bit but killed the battery on the drill......this was my buddies tools not mine. I would have used my angle grinder if I could have gotten it in that small space. .....again don't know since it was only his tools. He had a demo bar(cropwbar) and an 8 lb sledge so I stuck it up into the fluewith the tip angle going toward the back and aimed at the morter joint between the top and bottom brick of the smokeshelf. The bar was sticking out the front of the hearth and I started whacking it. After several tries it got some purchase on the joint and I was able to pop the brick off. Then I did the brick next to it and the brick broke in half but that was all the room we needed. We got the rest of the install done. trimmed the flex at the top and put on the cap...I boxed the ears on the flex at the bottom, hooked it to the T, put the slide connector on it, and wedged that on the back of the stove. NO hearth bad neaded since he has a cement floor to the stove room which he had just covered with ceramic tile( he did a fantastic job tilinlg that room....gonna get him to come over and show me how he did it.)
Last night he called to say it had a draft that would put out a match.....burning at 400 degrees and the family was curled up around it. HE was happy and I'm happy. .....well except that I think burning some wood that got rained on earlier in the week might have clogged the cats on MY stove a bit....but life goes on.
That's 2 liners down for me.

By the way....he took care of the block off plate. I was on the road home at that point.