Yes but only after the liner was installed, the forum is geared towards do it yourself home owners and the majority of us think that because it's a brick fireplace how could it possibly catch your house on fire. I know that all the info is on this forum if you take the time to search through thousands of pages, but let's be honest most people jump right into a project and learn from their mistakes. I just think it's very important before any answers are given to any OP that we explain what the insulation is really used for and that it can't be torn and needs a wire mesh over it to stop that from happening, and how this is very important before proceeding any further. Also point out what mistakes are common that you guys have seen over and over.
Who wants to see anyone go through all the trouble to install a liner only after to find out that they did it wrong. Safety advice should be first and foremost at the beginning of every project to insure it's done right, and we should point the OP to threads on this subject so they know it's the most important part of the install, and be researched before they proceed any further.
Mark- I understand how you feel. It takes hours and hours sometimes to get to the information that is important, and you have to sift through mountains of nonsense at times to get good information. Then, you have to decide who's giving good information and who's just blowing smoke. I felt the same way when I read through hundreds of posts last night about an insert that wasn't heating. Just required blocking off the holes up into the chimney behind the insert, but lots of nonsense was posited before the op was offered this solution.
I don't know the best way to solve this problem. Personally, after spending many hours here, I decided there are several "go-to" contributors that everyone should listen carefully to: bholler, bgreen, squisher are my favorites, but there are others, maybe just not as active currently.
If you pay attention to them, you'll see them repeating themselves over and over and over: install an insulated liner, install a block-off plate, burn dry wood, insulate your house, etc. But then people argue with them because they either can't or don't want to do the work, or spend the money. And, unless you've spent a lot of time here, you don't know who to listen to.
This isn't rocket science, and honestly, the good information could be boiled down somehow as a reference. In fact, if you knew where to look, I'm pretty sure those nuggets are all here, but there is so much information that it gets lost in the noise.
This is just one more example of the growing pains of the information age, the democratization of information. So many opinions that the facts get lost.
It doesn't help that many of the people who work in this industry are either clueless or just don't give a damn.
