FYI... when assembling your new chimney...

[northernontario]

FYI... for those assembling their new chimneys (especially Selkirk's CF Sentinel/ Metalbest chimney products)... when assembling an exterior 'tee' to the wall support kit, make sure you remove the plug from the bottom of the Tee, assemble the entire thing, then put the plug back into the tee through the bottom of the support kit. There's a little tab to hold it in place and everything!

If... like me... you miss the tiny little blurb in the instructions... and assemble the whole thing with the plug in the Tee... then come time to clean out the chimney, you get the joys of figuring out how to support the entire chimney while removing the support kit, to remove the plug. The hole in the bottom of the support base is smaller than the outer lip on the plug... so you can't pull it out.


arrggg!

 

[tfdchief]

Sounds like good information northernontario, Thanks for posting.

 

[cmonSTART]

Ouch! How did you end up supporting the chimney?

 

[northernontario]

Ouch! How did you end up supporting the chimney?

Haven't had to do it yet. I'm picturing making a wooden frame around the bottom of the chimney (where the Tee is), around the outside of the pipe. Strap it tight to the pipe, then support that whole thing while removing the bottom plate.

Of course, first I'm going up onto the roof and removing the section above the roof line, to take that little extra weight off things.

 

[northernontario]

Well I got around to making the repair on the long weekend. I had devised a way to support the chimney (using an old fall restraint harness strapped around the Tee), but figured I would see how much load was on the bottom bracket before building the rest of the "support" structure needed to hold up the chimney.

-First up onto the roof to remove the one section of pipe that sticks up beyond the roofline to take that weight off the system.
-Loosened the nuts/bolts on the bottom bracket that mounts to the wall, and nothing shifted. Infact it wasn't really holding anything up. The chimney seemed to be self-supporting through the Tee and the additional wall brace (wall clamp, partway up the chimney screwed through to the wall studs).

So, I quickly dropped the bracket off, pulled the plug, popped the bracket back on... and then jacked it up and tighened the bolts to ensure the bracket was actually taking a bit of the weight.

While I had it apart I ran the brush through to clean it up. Actually had very little creosote buildup compared to what I expected. Last winter I was burning only partially seasoned wood (3-5 months cut/split/stacked), and some older dry deadfall pine. That, combined with my poor draft (I've got one more 3ft chimney section to put up once I get the roof guy kit)... I was expecting far more buildup.

My draft isn't ideal... we're on the lower edge of a hill, slightly tucked into the trees. Factor in a 15' exterior chimney, bottom T, a 90° and a 45° elbow inside (can't eliminate the one 90°, or swap it for two 45° elbows either)... I'm hoping the extra 3ft I'll be adding on the roof will help with the natural draft of the stove. Based on the lack of creosote buildup, i'm surmising that my big problem is with natural draft, and not the chimney cooling too much.

All in all... a success.

 

[tfdchief]

northernontario,
Sounds like things aren't as bad as you thought. Glad to hear it worked out for you. That 3 feet should make some difference.