I had a question regarding my liner install as I did not have much faith in how the installer did it last year. He came recommened by the local fireplace dealer and has over 25 years experience. I am sure some of you have seen my past ranting in several topics on this! >:-( So, I figure lets go to the source and see what they say. What they told me was there are two basic national codes that if you can NOT answer yes to both, then you must insulate the liner regardless of the situation.
Q1 - Can you maintain a minimum 1" clearance between the liner and the clay flue pipe all the way from the wood insert to the final top connection?
Q2 - Does the overall exterior of the chimney structure have a minimum 1" clearance from any combustible material (wood siding, roof line, etc) of the home?
For Q1, we can answer yes, but with a notation...it's a ss flex liner in a straight chimney but there are points where it touches the side of the clay liner just due to the nature of the flex.
I'm not sure of Q2, but we have an exterior chimney with T1-11 siding on one side and aluminum siding on the other. The tech guy said that Q2 was relatively new code since 1992 and he has only seen 2 instances where someone was able to say yes to Q2; all others can't because it wasn't a code for a long time.
My inquiry was to see what I could do to extend my flex liner at the top to add another 18" to improve my overall height of the chimney. Our home was built in the 1960's and like most in our neighborhood, the chimney is not a full 2' above the highest point (ridgeline) of the home. His answer to that was also a negative! So, if I want to have a 100% code qualifying liner setup, I need to start all over and use straight pipe with flex for last connection to the insert. No way am I going to throw away $300 on this stuff; hell we burned an open fireplace for years with no problem; yearly cleanings, good wood, etc. With the insert and a full liner it has to be 100 times safer, but it seems the codes to follow are out of control. I don't think paying $36/bag for Thermite is economical either; our clay liners were in good condition prior to doing the full liner and we have just under a 15' length of liner in use.
Has anyone else experienced this? We didn't have a problem with burning last season other than our greenhorn status. We now know to burn hotter, clean the chimney often, etc. At what point does all this become overkill and no longer be a method to REDUCE our heating bill versus constant investment?
Q1 - Can you maintain a minimum 1" clearance between the liner and the clay flue pipe all the way from the wood insert to the final top connection?
Q2 - Does the overall exterior of the chimney structure have a minimum 1" clearance from any combustible material (wood siding, roof line, etc) of the home?
For Q1, we can answer yes, but with a notation...it's a ss flex liner in a straight chimney but there are points where it touches the side of the clay liner just due to the nature of the flex.
I'm not sure of Q2, but we have an exterior chimney with T1-11 siding on one side and aluminum siding on the other. The tech guy said that Q2 was relatively new code since 1992 and he has only seen 2 instances where someone was able to say yes to Q2; all others can't because it wasn't a code for a long time.
My inquiry was to see what I could do to extend my flex liner at the top to add another 18" to improve my overall height of the chimney. Our home was built in the 1960's and like most in our neighborhood, the chimney is not a full 2' above the highest point (ridgeline) of the home. His answer to that was also a negative! So, if I want to have a 100% code qualifying liner setup, I need to start all over and use straight pipe with flex for last connection to the insert. No way am I going to throw away $300 on this stuff; hell we burned an open fireplace for years with no problem; yearly cleanings, good wood, etc. With the insert and a full liner it has to be 100 times safer, but it seems the codes to follow are out of control. I don't think paying $36/bag for Thermite is economical either; our clay liners were in good condition prior to doing the full liner and we have just under a 15' length of liner in use.
Has anyone else experienced this? We didn't have a problem with burning last season other than our greenhorn status. We now know to burn hotter, clean the chimney often, etc. At what point does all this become overkill and no longer be a method to REDUCE our heating bill versus constant investment?
