Advice Needed - Awkward Chimney/Hearth setup

[savebrodeur]

I recently bought a home which has a double chimney for the basement and first floor. The basement is unused and brand new. Upon taking apart the woodstove piping on the first floor (it is a Hearthstone Phoenix), I realized that the thimble on the first floor which is directly in the center of the home, is actually not in the center of the chimney flue, but rather the center of the double chimney. They obviously messed up during construction. So, the actual flue designated for the first floor is to the left of the thimble. I have attached a photo. If you look inside the thimble, the actual flue is left about a foot. The orange clay liner is left a foot and about 5 ft or so higher up and appears to be rectangular to the top of the chimney.

The prior owner actually just had a single wall pipe resting in the thimble, which is obviously not good being that A) it is an exterior chimney and liner much larger than the 6 inch woodstove, and B) the exhaust literally has to make a hard left to then exit through the top some 25 ft higher .

My question is, what in the heck do I need to do here?

A flexible liner option is out because I cannot get it around the corner and the cleanout is not reachable from the basement cleanout door. Do I tear down this chimney and install just a single lined chimney that is properly centered? Do I move the thimble to the left (properly lined up) and install a steel liner?

I am very frustrated by this situation because the home is new and the chimney is about 25 ft high (A Frame), and I feel like I should have better inspected this prior to purchasing the home, but it wasn't even a thought.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[begreen]

Does the thimble just dump into the cavity between two flues or under one and alongside the other? and there is an open bottom flue that starts about 5 ft above it? Really? What is supporting that flue tile?
Sorry if I am being a bit slow here, maybe my brain just doesn't want to visualize this, and maybe I have it all wrong. FWIW, in the picture it looks like the current thimble on the stove is slightly to the left of center on the wall.

 

[Rearscreen]

Does the stove perform properly? Are there problems? Did the builder want everything, the stove, chimney to appear centered that's why the offset? Is the basement flue a straight shot?
Don't be hard on yourself about inspections. The previous owner of my house had it inspected. Then it started to slide down the hill. Unfortunately for the inspector the buyer was a lawyer from Manhattan. Inspector lost lawsuit, house raised, full concrete pour, garage addition and stone fireplace once on the exterior became a center stone chimney. My gain.
Friend of mine had his house inspected in CT. Inspector missed one important thing. The 200 amp panel was just that. A new 200 amp panel with 60 amps running from the pole. Luckily, CL&P didn't charge for the upgrade. Great inspector huh?
Me? I bought my house cash no inspections. (except septic of course) There's always problems with any house. Even new.

 

[savebrodeur]

Thanks for the reply. I just took a couple of photos. One is directly looking through thimble horizontally. Other is from clean-out in basement shooting up.

 

[savebrodeur]

Does the stove perform properly? Are there problems? Did the builder want everything, the stove, chimney to appear centered that's why the offset? Is the basement flue a straight shot?
Don't be hard on yourself about inspections. The previous owner of my house had it inspected. Then it started to slide down the hill. Unfortunately for the inspector the buyer was a lawyer from Manhattan. Inspector lost lawsuit, house raised, full concrete pour, garage addition and stone fireplace once on the exterior became a center stone chimney. My gain.
Friend of mine had his house inspected in CT. Inspector missed one important thing. The 200 amp panel was just that. A new 200 amp panel with 60 amps running from the pole. Luckily, CL&P didn't charge for the upgrade. Great inspector huh?
Me? I bought my house cash no inspections. (except septic of course) There's always problems with any house. Even new.

Wow, thats interesting. This all started when I was getting no good draft and smoke and wondered why the heck that was. I knew very little about this stuff and learned about the need to have a similar sized flue as the wood stove etc... and really get the chimney heated up to get the draft correct. I am just now a bit nervy thinking this doesn't seem right and is dangerous. Hopefully those additional photos help paint the picture.

 

[begreen]

Hmm, measure twice, cut once. Yes the flue needs to be roughly sized to the stove outlet size, in this case 6" for the Phoenix.

Is the basement shot of the other flue and not the one that the stove is connected to? Or is it looking up the same flue that the stove is connected to?

 

[Rearscreen]

I'm not thinking dangerous here unless I'm missing something, but might not work optimally. Sleep on it, there's a solution. I had a Phoenix once and it suddenly started to smoke up. Looking back I wonder if I should have done a thorough clean of the inside above the secondary tubes/ceramic blanket. I was blaming wet wood at the time, but I do know that suddenly it wasn't working well and smoking.

 

[begreen]

My concern is if the thimble is right angle dumping into an unlined cement block chimney with an oversized flue. That could be a real creosote trap.

 

[savebrodeur]

Hmm, measure twice, cut once. Yes the flue needs to be roughly sized to the stove outlet size, in this case 6" for the Phoenix.

Is the basement shot of the other flue and not the one that the stove is connected to? Or is it looking up the same flue that the stove is connected to?

Yes, that shot fro the basement is the flue the stove is hooked to. And, from the looks of it, they missed and made up for it by chipping away at the center block, so its sort of half in the stack and halfway routed out into the center.

 

[begreen]

OK, they cut corners there, both figuratively and literally. To make this right there needs to be a proper insulated, 6" stainless liner in that section after the flue is cleaned. The thimble will need to be properly relocated.

 

[savebrodeur]

OK, they cut corners there, both figuratively and literally. To make this right there needs to be a proper insulated, 6" stainless liner in that section after the flue is cleaned. The thimble will need to be properly relocated.

Well, thanks for your input. Too bad there is very little play to fix the hearth due to the location with the windows. I guess I will just need to live with it being awkwardly off center.