Flue Replacement Advice

[death2zeus]

Hello I am a college student,

When cleaning my parent's chimney, I found that multiple clay liners were destroyed. After this I asked my father if he had known of the issue, and his reply was he first noticed it 2 years ago. Following this I decided to get a picture of the chimney from the bottom clean out. I am relatively sure that the clean out is not built correctly since it is just an open box with the chimney sitting on top. The thimble for the stove vents directly into the box, and the flue gasses just kinda find there way up. This alarmed me quite a bit, and to get a better look at the situation I pulled the stove off the wall. Once the stove came off the wall I found it to have a 12 inch square collar coming out the back. The collar connects into a 12 inch square thimble with a damper built in. Following this I decided that the clay liner was in such terrible shape that I could not stay. After removing the liners I found a lot of creosote build up, and a big glob of it. Currently I do am not sure how to proceed. When looking online I found a lot of things talking about 316ti insulated liners, but have not figured out how to connect the square opening to the round liner. The block at the top of the chimney was not in the best shape, but the rest of the chimney seems to look good. It does not appear as if it has settled in any inappropriate way. I have pictures of everything, but do not know how to upload them.

 

[death2zeus]

I figured out how to attach images.

The top row of images are: the middle section of the chimney, a lump of creosote that I found, the picture looking up from the clean out, and the rear stove exhaust.

The middle row of images are: the furnace itself, the thimble/damper assembly, the top of the chimney, and the bottom of the chimney.

The last row of images are: what the inside of the chimney looks like after removing the liners and what I first saw when looking down the chimney.

 

[zig]

Is that a homemade stove? Myself personally, I wouldn't use any part of that setup. Get a newer stove, remove the flue liners and use an insulated liner down the chimney. Going to have to spend some money or heat with gas. Sorry, just my thoughts.

 

[begreen]

Wow, what a mess. Is this their sole source of heat or is that a heat pump outside? What is the plan going forward and what can they afford as a remedy?

 

[death2zeus]

They have a central heating and air unit as secondary heat, but this was the main source of heat for the winter. They really don't want to replace the stove and also can not afford another one. My father wants to tear down the top half of the chimney, and put a 12 inch steel pipe in as a chimney. After this his plan would be to leave the clean out as it is, and then rebuild the chimney around the steel pipe. That entire idea scares me because it still doesn't address the issue with the thimble not connected directly to the flue pipe. I was considering getting the 12 inch smooth flexible liner with insulation, and looking for a local shop that could weld together 12 inch circular to 12 inch square snout. The issue with this is that there is a drop in area of 31 square inches, and I do not know if that would cause an issue with drafting. I called the gentleman that built the furnace, and his reasoning for having such a large opening was that when the front doors are open it lets in a lot of air. Another though of mine was that if I could decrease the opening on the stove to a 12 inch round with a flange and plate wielded to the opening. This also brings up the question of will it affect the draft in a negative way.