SS liner with broken Silicone on top

[Rhone]

My wife is concerned. When my installers put in my liner, they didn't trim down the top and it stuck out too much. Long story short, it sticking out so much caught the wind, pushed slightly to the side and broke all the silicone seals up there.

Come spring, I'm taking out the liner and replacing it. Am I in danger if I wait till Spring with broken silicone seals? My roof is covered with snow & ice so I'm in danger if I do it now. If I caulk it again chances are it will break the seals again. I don't have the tools, but I can get them my other option is to risk it and climb on the roof with snow & ice, trim it down, re-attach the rain cap, and recaulk it. Then, replace the whole liner in Spring.

Is this something very critical and can't wait till spring? I have an inside chimney.

 

[RedSleds]

Why replace the liner, is it broken? Just cut it shorter and reinstall the rain cap, or get a chimney extention if you need the clearance height. I wouldn't wait 'til spring to fix it, you could get a bunch of water in your stove if the rain cap is sideways, or down the chimney if the silicone seal is leaking badly. Get something done as soon as the ice and snow is gone.

 

[webbie]

My wife is concerned. When my installers put in my liner, they didn't trim down the top and it stuck out too much. Long story short, it sticking out so much caught the wind, pushed slightly to the side and broke all the silicone seals up there.

Come spring, I'm taking out the liner and replacing it. Am I in danger if I wait till Spring with broken silicone seals? My roof is covered with snow & ice so I'm in danger if I do it now. If I caulk it again chances are it will break the seals again. I don't have the tools, but I can get them my other option is to risk it and climb on the roof with snow & ice, trim it down, re-attach the rain cap, and recaulk it. Then, replace the whole liner in Spring.

Is this something very critical and can't wait till spring? I have an inside chimney.

Doesn't sound too bad....silicone in any case is not a sufficient "mechanical" fastening system! I don't see any reason to replace the liner - there are numerous ways you can make the liner more secure.

 

[Rhone]

Can I wait till spring and leave the broken silicone seals up top all winter and still use my insert or do you think that's a serious issue?

Redsleds my liner belongs in the book of world records for having problems. The main problem out of the 6 or so issues is my installers pulled my insert out with a very tight liner, and crimped the liner it at the block-off plate to about 3". Now there's no way with my liner crimped that much I get good draft and smoke comes pouring out of it whenever I think about opening the door. Also, the only way to fix the 3" crimp is to remove the liner and bend it back, then put it back down. I figure, might as well fix the reason why they crimped it. They underestimated how much flex they needed and I think got me a 5' flex pipe when I needed 7'. They nearly got a hernia trying to pull it down into my insert, and had to use a coupling device on the top of my insert to make it reach the last 2". I'd rather wait till I'm done replacing the flex part and see where the top needs to be cut and put the rain cap back on in spring if it's safe to use.

 

[RedSleds]

Wow, sounds to me like they should have used an ovalized flex liner to get through the damper. I would have the installer back to redo at his cost if I were you, since he is the one who crimped it up so bad in the first place. How did that pass inspection?

As far as the broken seal goes.........
How much bigger is the hole in the top plate than the O.D. of the liner? Maybe you could install a storm collar above the seal if there isn't one there now, AFAIK, there should be one there.

 

[Sundeep Arole]

Rhone - Do you have enough liner sticking up the top that you could just pull it down, cut it off right above the crimp, and then attach it to your insert? If so, that will solve both your problems - sticking out the top and
the crimp.

 

[Sundeep Arole]

And, where the liner passes through the block off plate you can reinforce the liner by wrapping one of those galvalized thimbles you get for stove pipe. You can clamp it on with those radiator style clamps. At least that is what I did with mine, I too was afraid mine was going to crimp.

 

[BrotherBart]

My wife is concerned. When my installers put in my liner, they didn't trim down the top and it stuck out too much. Long story short, it sticking out so much caught the wind, pushed slightly to the side and broke all the silicone seals up there.

Come spring, I'm taking out the liner and replacing it. Am I in danger if I wait till Spring with broken silicone seals? My roof is covered with snow & ice so I'm in danger if I do it now. If I caulk it again chances are it will break the seals again. I don't have the tools, but I can get them my other option is to risk it and climb on the roof with snow & ice, trim it down, re-attach the rain cap, and recaulk it. Then, replace the whole liner in Spring.

Is this something very critical and can't wait till spring? I have an inside chimney.

My two cents. You have a stove pipe. It just happens to be inside a masonry chimney. If the stove is running all of the time moisture damn sure isn't making it down the chimey, it is evaporating back out the top from the heat of the pipe. What other problem would you have. Open flues without a liner live through the weather every day of the year and tons of them don't have caps.

Do not climb up on that roof!

 

[elkimmeg]

Rhone: the minium length of time one has to warrantee workmanship is one year. Meaning if you hired installers and you discover( as you have), they kinked the passage threw the damper plate. Rendering your stove function not to work as expected, they have to remidy the situation. That is a consumer law in every state. Factor this in: Supose it was me as the inspector and for some reason I had not discovered the kink (probably due to the metal plate obstruction my view) I missed it and passed the inspection.. If you approached me to re-examine what I had missed I would accompany you to your home and view your concerns. At that point you could sit back and actually hear me cracking the nuts of the installers to get it resolved. You actually have given me a second chance to correct what I missed. I would be so apprecaitive I would bust their balls like they were in a vise. I could make life so miserable for them, it would be cheaper that they decide not to work in my town again. Or it could be as simple you screwed up the install the owner pointed it out to me go fix it. Probably the way it would go, As far as you fixing, you paid pro's to get it right, might as well get it includibg the correct length top and proper termination. You should not have to go up on the roof they screwed up

 

[Rhone]

Thanks all. I've gathered that I will probably be fine until spring even with the broken seals. It's the storm collar that the silicone has all broken. They put a somewhat flat stainless plate directly to the cement cap on top of my chimney. That's fine. To that, they attached a storm collar. At the base of the storm collar the silicone seals broke off that plate and also the silicone around my liner going through the collar, as the liner shifted in the wind.

I don't want them coming out anymore because they've come out 4 times and I've had it with them and they've had it with me. They probably think I'm their worst customer, to me they messed up the installation to begin with and it needed to be completely torn out, the right pieces used, and then reinstalled. Their philosophy seems to have been get the liner down the chimney first and see how they can get it to work with the installation and get parts afterward. My philosophy is, get the liner to work with the installation, then go about getting all the parts and then putting it down the chimney. I also want to cut the damper so it doesn't have to ovalize, they won't do that.