How to remove double wall pipe in an outdoor chase.

[Nobody875689]

We bought a house with a wood stove and have decided to pull it out. The stove is in an alcove in the living room which extends out into the garage. The pipe goes up through the alcove roof, then through a portion of the garage attic, then up a chase on the outside of the house. The chase is rotten and will have to be taken out, but we are hoping to put that off until next year. The alcove ceiling is temporarily foam board as the wall board was rotten and falling down. The stove has some rust damage and the garage roof has some mold damage from water that has entered through that old chase.

The pipe is about 9.5 inches in diameter, so I think it's 8 inch double walled pipe. I need to get it disconnected and out (at least out of the living area) so I can fix the ceiling and take the stove out. I don't know how (or if) this is supported in the chase, as you can't see up there. There are no bands holding the pipe together, looks like is just held together with sheet metal screws. If it has to be taken apart from the top, I'm not sure how to do that without tearing the chase down to access it. Thought about sawing through it to see what happens, but not brave enough to do that without more info.

House was built around 1980, if that is of any importance. Over my head here and appreciate all suggestions!

 

[begreen]

It's possible the whole installation is not to code and unsafe. Alcove installations have specific requirements.

Looks like a snotty attempt to caulk it without addressing the real issue topside. And I see no insulation shield around the chimney. The chimney pipe may be supported by the fireplace, but it may pass through a firestop. Hopefully all the weight is not sitting on the bottom elbow. It may need to be detached from the elbow on top of the fireplace (stove?) first. Then pulled up, a section at a time, from the top. Cinch a strap around it to stop it from falling down while proceeding.

If they did add a support bracket inside the chase, then open up the chase with an access hole. Put a patch on the hole until next year. Personally, I'd bite the bullet and remove the whole thing.

 

[Nobody875689]

Just to close this up, we decided this was more than we could do, and finally found a chimney company willing to pull the stove and chimney for us. The bracket in the garage attic was the only one there was, and the top cap was just pushed into the top pipe. (They guessed on the cap connection as it was a rainy day and while they tried to get up on the steel roof, it was impossibly slippery. Thankfully their guess was correct. ) They loosened the garage bracket and pried the first bend up onto the lip of the stove. Once it was as high as they could get it, they re-tightened the clamp and beat on the bend until they got it clear of the stove and straight pipe. They then pulled the stove out, and while one guy held the weight of the pipe the other loosened the bracket and they lowered the pipe to the ground. It was pretty heavy. They then disconnected and pulled off the pieces one by one as they lifted and lowered it. It looks like the wall upon which the chase is built is sided, so now we just need to tear off the chase and fix the roof. It was not cheap and having seen it done, two of us could have done it. They did have a much better dolly for moving the stove than we did, but maybe that could be rented. Hope this info helps someone else out down the road.