Story about the old`en days!!

[RedRanger]

Talk about brain dead!!

When we first moved to our last house 1982 the previous owner had a barrel in the basement, chimney pipe straight thru the roof. not insulated. Hot,hot,hot,amazing we are all still alive. And the fireplace upstairs, franklin insert,non-insulated pipe straight up and straight out. Roof trusses were just waiting to catch fire. Well, we only found this stuff out when we had a certified company replace the insert upstairs, and the smok`in barrel downstairs. This nightmare with 3 young children.

And you are all gonna love this one, he used a heavy weight,like a cannon ball on a rope to clean the chimney. Remember, not ss liner, just clay tile. Chicken wire on a cannon ball. Well, I tried it,only once, and the first thing I noticed was how it was smashing the hell out of the firebricks in the chimney.

That is when the light went off, and I thought, maybe get someone out here to replace the crap this guy was using, and get a proper install.

Therefore, I take my hat off to all of you guys and gals that try to make wood-burning safer,cause we are still lucky to even be here on this forum today. Only by the grace of god do we go.

Getting older, but so much still to learn, and that is a good thing Any one else have any nightmares that they bought,and got corrected before it was too late??

 

[Highbeam]

I bought my old 1963 home and had to remove what might have been installed "to code" back in the day. The bigger reason for removing the masonry chimney was that the back was blown out probably by an overzealous isntaller of a large Lopi insert.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Same thing with our house bought back in 1989; stovepipe run straight up through the roof, no insulation at all. Had a sweep come in and look at all of the other chimneys (oil burner and fireplace) and he wouldn't even touch this rig-job. Got it done right and no problems at all, thankfully. And this guy was a shop teacher! He used to have some students come over and do work on the house; much of which we had to pay to have corrected over the years!!

 

[RedRanger]

Hey Pooky: When I first lowered that cannonballwith the chicken wire attached down the chimney, well, all you could hear, was crunch,crack and crackle. What an idiotic idea, just did nothing but break those nice at that time clay lined flue tiles into smitherines. At that time that was "code"..

You must admit it is amazing the wisdom that we can pickup on this forum. Spceially the videos that Craig has let loose on us?

I am reallyl becoming a true John Gulland fan. You don`t want to see my post about how I stacked my firewood straight into the woodshed.. Sad, so sad.

 

[gary]

House was built in 1973. We bought it in 2005. Tried to use the fireplace a few times the first year but it didn't draft worth a hoot and found out the damper was completely rotted out. Wife complained the entire house smelled like smoke.

Bought the insert and liner just over a year ago. Went to rebuild the chimney from roof line up last summer. When I took the old stuff off amd looked down, I was in shock. The clay tile lined up similar to one of those snakes you see laying out on the highway and the exterior of it was coated with creosote from a couple decades of smoke leaking through the joints. Suprised the place never burned down.

 

[crazy_dan]

at least you had tiles.
When I bout this house the last owner had a barrel stove no damper and single wall (I suspect galvanized) running about 12' up trough the roof and no guy wires supports or screws, talk about scary.
I never did burn it just ripped it out and replaced it with an Earth stove, Simpson DVL, and super vent class A, then replaced the Earth Stove with a PE summit a few years latter.

 

[gary]

You got me on that one. I did have tiles for what they were worth.

 

[webbie]

We actually did have a customer who used a duck or a goose to clean the chimney - I think it tries to claw it's way out, and does a pretty good job.
PETA would not approve.

I used to use window weights (like a cannon ball) on the bottom of the chimney brush sometimes. It worked fine if you were careful and the chimney was not too dirty.

 

[jotul8e2]

Sometimes the old ways are not the best. Some years ago we had a fireplace refaced. The mason tore out the old rock face and was looking at the construction of the fireplace and chimney. He finally said, "Grandad used to build fireplaces this way. [long pause] We've had to fix a lot of 'em." He was dead serious, but it was all I could do not to laugh out loud.

Mark

 

[Fire Bug]

We, (wife & I ), looked at a house and when the realestate agent opened the second floor bedroom closet door, low and behold, their was the stove pipe running up through the closet, through the closet ceiling, and finally through the attic rafters.
The woodstove was located in the basement of the house.
The closet was full of clothing, but I bet ya these clothes were warm to put on in the winter!