Important question about liners..

[jgcable]

My co-worker has a house built in the 20's. It has a chimney running up the middle of the house. In the basement is a gas fired furnace that once was an oil and probably coal fired at one time.
He has a fireplace on the first floor in the living room.
A few years ago he had a chimney liner put in because upon inspection of his chimney by a chimney sweep it was in need on one.
He has never used his fireplace.
A few nights ago he opened his damper in his fireplace, threw some logs in and tried to start a fire. It smoldered and the smoke poured directly into his house. The damper is fully open. He looked up his chimney and can see the liner that was installed a few years prior. He told me that it goes all the way up the chimney to the top with a cap put on it. It sort of veers around his fireplace and goes straight down to his gas fire furnace exhaust where it ties into the exhaust stack of his furnace.
This leaves no room for his fireplace to vent because there is only the tiniest of space between the liner and the chimney inner walls.
He also told me that he is 99% sure that his chimney cap has 2 clay rectangular flues coming out of it with a rectangular rain cap covering both of them.
So... here are my questions...
1. Is it possible that he only has one flue even though he has a fireplace? If so, how come he didn't get fumes from the furnace into his house prior to installing the liner?
2. Is it possible that he has 2 flues but the installer put the liner in the wrong one?
3. If the liner is put in the wrong flue is it possible to run 2 liners?
We are trying to figure this out and I told him that this forum is the best place to ask.
Thanks.. John G

 

[FyreBug]

"My co-worker has a house built in the 20’s. It has a chimney running up the middle of the house. In the basement is a gas fired furnace that once was an oil and probably coal fired at one time."

What are the size of the flues 8X12"?


"It sort of veers around his fireplace and goes straight down to his gas fire furnace exhaust where it ties into the exhaust stack of his furnace.
This leaves no room for his fireplace to vent because there is only the tiniest of space between the liner and the chimney inner walls. "

This is strange... If the liner goes in the fireplace chimney then bypasses the fireplace down to the furnace it sounds as if they are sharing the same chimney which is a big no no... And if there is 2 flues how does the liner exactly go from one to the other?

I didnt want to take a guess at the questions. But the best thing might be to post some pics esp. from inside the fireplace where you can see where the liner is going.

 

[jgcable]

He is going to measure and take some pics tonight.
Is it possible for a house from the 20's with a fireplace to have only 1 flue? The house originally has always had a furnace.

 

[Stump_Branch]

they use to allow dual use chimneys, have a furnace and stove go into the same. this is not the case now. From the limited description, "2 clay flue tiles" coming out of the top, and furnace/coal in basement. I'm going with the installer put the liner down the wrong one, they might have two liners but one cleanout in the bottom for example, for whatever reason the newer furnace was put on the other/same side as the fireplace and thats where the installer put it, or he was a moron and did it wrong from the top and when he got down below hid his shoddy work. eitherway, dont burn in the fireplace till resolved.

correct me someone, but I thought gas was only 3" liner...why would this limit clearence so much? double walled and the o.d. is more like 5"-6"...?
not that I say it would be okay if it was the case Im just asking

 

[cmonSTART]

It is possible that the fireplace and furnace shared a flue, and when the basement was relined it rendered the fireplace inoperative.

or

It may have had two separate clay flues laying against each other (without a wythe wall). If the old clay liner had to be removed for some reason, both flues may have been removed. I cannot however imagine having to do this for a gas liner. More likely it's the first.

Either way, the fireplace does not have an operable flue attached to it anymore. The chimney is solely for the gas furnace at this point in time.

Pictures would be good.

 

[jgcable]

OK, so my co-worker didn't take any pictures but he did tell me that his chimney has 2 flues because he can see 2 separate clay rectangular flues protruding out of his chimney.
Does this mean 100% that he has 2 separate flues, one for the fireplace and one for the furnace?
If so.... how could the liner that was installed a few years ago block the fireplace from being used?
He also had an old oil burner replaced with a gas furnace about 5 years ago.

I would have to think that his chimney is very similar to mine because our houses are around the same time period, they look similar and we both have a fireplace in the living room and a furnace in the basement.
When I installed my pellet stove insert I ran a liner from the fireplace to the top of the chimney. At that time I notice what my chimney design was.
Basically, I have 2 flues, One starts at the fireplace and runs straight up the chimney to the top. The flue for my furnace kind of veers around my fireplace and goes down to the furnace. There is a cleanout door in the base of my chimney too. I have 2 clay flues sticking out of my chimney that look very similar to what he has. I would assume we have similar layouts. The thing I can't figure out is how the liner for his furnace can be blocking the flue for his fireplace.

 

[BrotherBart]

Somebody is going to have to go look at that setup. Hard to see over the Internet. :smirk: