Liner project, or, Why Is Granny on the Roof?

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SnapCracklePop

SnapCracklePop

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
Sep 29, 2010
269
Southwestern Penna
Here's my story and I'm stickin' to it... I'm Nancy, the 68-yr-old woman who is going to attempt my own liner installation tomorrow, with the help of my 5'2" 73-yr-old girlfriend Lorraine...



So, Chapter One:

UPS called last week and said they had "a skid of pipe" to deliver weighing 78 pounds, and could a tractor-trailer make it down my road?

Yikes! A skid? 78 pounds?!? I have trouble lifting 50 pounds of dog food. What have I done?

After some reflection, I concluded that the weight must include the skid (it does) and the pipe is indeed a manageable weight. It's still 20 feet long, though...

Anyway, it came a little while ago. Told the guy I'd take the skid off his hands (kindling; I learned that here). Got it all unpacked, read the directions (I don't always) and put the Tee Branch into the opening thru the basement wall. Couldn't fit better if it tried.

The pipe was all curled up like a big python, and it liked being that way. It did not want to straighten out. But I have the stumps of two mighty oaks about 8 feet apart in my back yard, and they made for dandy leverage convincing the python to do my bidding. It's almost straight, and the insulation should help fix the final kinks.

So now, after a break for lunch, I'm back out to attach the Tee Body, insulation and wire mesh cover thingie...

Lorraine will be here around 1:00 tomorrow, and when we get 'er done we'll call for a pizza and crack a couple of brews.

What can possibly go wrong?
 
Somebody has just GOT to video this project.
 
Consider me subscribed to this one...

I think this is great that you gals are going to attempt this. My mother is lucky enough to have me around for things like this but I love it that you are not too intimidated to try it yourselves. This is totally doable with a bit of coaching. You are in good hands here...
 
great project!

other than the obvious things, like being careful on the roof, and wear gloves-that stuff will slice you up. It is really pretty easy.

I had a hard time fishing mine down the clay lined chimny, it was a pretty tight fit, but the hardest part, was starting the screws in the very top of the liner pipe to attach the cap mounting ring, that material was very difficult to drive the sheetmetal screws into.

I ended up using a board inside the pipe as a backer, and using a sharp punch to divot the holes first, and it still took an uncomfortable amount of pressure to get the screws started.
 
PopCrackleSnap said:
What can possibly go wrong?
Click to expand...

With a username of PopCrackleSnap, and you ask what can go wrong?

Looking forward to Chapter 2. If there are no pictures, we will assume this is just fiction.

Good Luck. Hopefully the photographer will help also.
 
Already took some photos with my iPhone, but will get some others with the SLR...

BrotherBart, Elbonia is prolly only a 2 or 3 hr drive from here. How about you do the install and I shoot the video?

Nancy
 
When we get the cable TV hearth.com show on the air it will have to have a regular segment Lining Your Chimney with Nancy and Lorraine.
 
When you are done, stop by my place. I am installing a Heritage and need someone on the roof to shove a liner down the chimney.
 
Wow, step away for a couple hours and the show starts without you. Kudos for tackling this project Nancy. Can you give us some background on what you are attempting to do by describing the current chimney and existing flue?

Some safety issues to note:
The current flue has to be cleaned first. Don't put the pipe down a dirty flue.
Be safe working up there! Wear, laced shoes with good traction soles.
Wear gloves, the raw edges of the liner can cut your hands quickly.
Take your time and feel free to ask questions here.
 
OK, here's the poop.

When I bought this 3-bedroom modular about 15 years ago, there was electric baseboard heat, and the previous owners had installed a rice-coal burner in the basement, which heated the house quite nicely. But it was very dirty.

I put up with the dirt for a few years, then replaced the coal unit with a kerosene stove by Nestor Martin that looked a lot like a woodburner. That also heated the house quite nicely, but kerosene was 80 cents a gallon when I got the unit. Now I can't afford whatever kerosene sells for... $3.50 a gallon or more?

So, I have a Pleasant Hearth unit from Lowe's sitting there ready to be hooked up. I'm going budget model because I'm trying not to spend a fortune.

The chimney is lined with tile and is 7" square. I borrowed my neighbor's brush, etc., and actually couldn't find anything to clean from the flue because the previous units did not create creosote. There are some cracks in the flue, and the stove will want a 6" liner anyway. It's a straight shot down the chimney; no bends or rough spots that I can see. I'll have about 18 feet of liner when all is said and done.

The insulation arrived a couple of weeks ago, and the liner itself came this morning. I have straightened out the liner as much as I could, and have attached the insulation and the wire mesh that comes with the insulation (to protect everything during the installation). There is no clean-out access or anything; where the stove will attach to the flue is actually underground. I have to install the liner from the top down because of the 90 degree bend at the bottom.

As long as it's not windy tomorrow, the installation should go OK. What's that noise? Do I hear guffaws? Probably. These things never go as planned. Oh well...

Getting back to the electric heat... I'm in Pennsylvania, where electric rates have been capped for years. The cap comes off next month, and who knows what kind of hit our bills will see. Some say 30 to 40%. I now have a budget plan for $165 a month.

Last winter I worked as a field researcher on a national survey for the University of Michigan, which meant 30-plus hours a week out on rural Pennsylvania roads during the worst winter in recent memory... This winter I plan to catch up on my knitting, reading, woodworking, etc. In front of a cozy fire.

Yeah.
 
Your story is as interesting as it gets and you are a damn riot. I just wish you were closer and I didn't have to work so that I could give you a hand and then get to share a beer /w you after.

Best of luck.

BTW, are you planning on working from the top down or the bottom up?

I worked from the top down on mine and found that it helped having one person up top guiding and the person below pulling.

To pull, I tied a rope to the center of a bath towel and shoved the bath towel into the end of the liner. I secured it there w/ duct tape and then pulled away.

good luck, (still chuckeling)

pen
 
PopCrackleSnap said:
....

What can possibly go wrong?
Click to expand...



Knock, knock... Hello, Murphy!? ;-)


I gota envy you young ladies attacking that python.

PLEASE, the both of you - BE SAFE! If it gets too out of hand, give a young buck a yell. The ones I know 'round here will do it just for the pizza and brews.

P.J.
 
Nancy (& Lorraine),

Best of luck tomorrow and best wishes to you both for attempting this! Chicken that I am, just a tad younger than you, I hired a pro to do this job but then again I have to be here to take care of hubby - if I was on my own maybe I would have tried to do the install myself.

Careful of that first step off and first step on that ladder! That's the 'big step' and if'n you miss it the rest of the day is all downhill (literally)! :)

(Paging the local TV station: Can we get a camera crew over to Nancy's place tomorrow? :) )

Shari
 
Pictures or it didn't happen. Sorry Granny, that's how I roll. ;-P

Just kidding, btw. I hope everything goes smoothly for you ladies. Kudos for attempting this yourself!
 
It's the little old lady in Southwest Penn

The little old lady in Southwest Penn
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
Has a chimney needs lining and not much to spend
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
But everybody on heart.com thinks nothin would be finer
Than for her to stuff that chimney with an insulated liner

Lorraine can't figure out what could be the matter
With Nancy zipping up a twenty foot ladder
With the liner all wrapped and laid out in the yard
She'll make the job look like it ain't even hard

It's the little old lady in Southwest Penn
Go granny, go granny, go granny go
 
BrotherBart said:
It's the little old lady in Southwest Penn
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Shari
 
BrotherBart said:
It's the little old lady in Southwest Penn
Click to expand...

Outstanding! (As I grab a paper towel to clean the beer off of the computer monitor)

pen
 
Nanc, you go girl !!!


Git 'er dun :)


I'd love pics, too ( says she who is puitting in a chimney within the next 2 weeks !)


LOL @ BB... outstanding !
 
Sounds like my 85 year old father inlaw,I pull in to his drive way and see him up a 40 foot lader
painting the trim on his house.in one hand a paint brush the other a beer can = ex cop from south bronx.
 
Chapter Two...

Success! But not the way I wanted it...

Got the liner maybe two feet into the chimney, top down, and it got stuck. I wrapped both arms around that sucker and hung on it like a monkey on a coconut tree, but it wouldn't budge. There was NO WAY my partner in crime Lorraine was coming up on the roof to help.

Plan B.........

Pulled it back out and removed the wire mesh and all of the insulation that would come off. Some of the fiberglass stuck, where I had applied the spray adhesive. Then, the liner went into the chimney, but with no little amount of persuasion. Whatever gaps remain will be filled with pour-down insulation. Shoulda done that in the first place...

Meanwhile, down in the basement, Lorraine very patiently tried to get the Tee assembly to work. It took three tries, but she finally got it together. That's good, because after that it was Plan C, and I didn't have the foggiest notion what Plan C would be.

By the way, Lorraine forgot to bring her cell phone, but we found that the liner itself makes a dandy method of communicating. Just as good as a tin can telephone.

We were supposed to have pizza and some brewskis, but Lorraine settled for tea and cookies. I, however, had a couple of Coors Lights. I am still in awe, and I can hardly believe we pulled it off.

I'm not going back up on the roof today (not after the Coors), but I just might put together the stove pipes in the basement and do a break-in fire for shucks and giggles.

I do have photo proof that we really did this, but I have to do the Picasa thingie first...

And somewhere in there I've just got to take my second shower of the day to get rid of the fiberglass that found its way down my sweatshirt...

Whew!
 
I'm in total AWE of you ladies....we are not worthy :exclaim:
 
I just opened a cold one and held it up toward the north in a salute to ya. Hell of a job ladies.
 
Well done! You will be warm this winter!
Yeah, pretty tough to get an insulated 6" liner down a 7" square flue (he said belatedly).
I did the pour-in insulation with my wife mixing & me pouring from the ladder & it was rather easy if I may say. Hardest part really is hauling bucket after bucket of the stuff up with a rope. If you don't have much space around that liner (don't see how you would especially if you had to smoosh "ovalize" the liner to get it in) the pour-in may not get you much insulation value for the work & $. You could just put some of that newly destroyed liner insulation to good use by stuffing it around the liner from the top & bottom as far as you can reach, seal the top-plate & block-off plate well & call your installation very good.
 
Nancy, I got here late on this one, but.....KUDOS, KUDOS, KUDOS to you and Lorraine for even daring to do this.
I'm glad you were able to post a successful ending.
Have the aches and pains started yet? :coolsmile:
BB, does this stove qualify her for a t-shirt?
N/M, it's a "Pleasant Hearth". Not worthy. The stove, not Nancy.
 
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