Air-Cooled Chimney Ripout...Advice for separating pipes?

[Islander08]

Hi Folks,

I'm doing a swap of an builder-box open fireplace with air cooled chimney to an EPA fireplace with insulated chimney. The old one is a Superior fireplace, with their 2-piece chimney (8" S/S ID, 12" Galv OD) in 3' sections. New one will be a BIS Nova that fits in the existing rough opening.

I'm trying to remove the old air-cooled chimney from a chase. I'm planning to disconnect the chimney at the fireplace, remove the fireplace, and lower the cold chimney down, removing one 3' section at a time. I need to saz-all off a wall band, then the chimney is free to fall (currently held with come-along).

I'm finding the joints between sections tough to separate! Does anyone have any advice for how to easily separate the pipes at the joints? Seems like those little tabs really hold after assembly.

I suppose I can saz-all the thing out, but hoping to save the chimney sections for future use at a friends 3-season camp...

Thanks! Jeff

 

[jtp10181]

Sawzall the first piece in half. Go up on the roof and pull it out in one big piece.

Other option would be to use a screw driver to pop all the tabs off, but it will take a while.

 

[firefirefire]

I find that a hammer works quite well and quickly. Just smash the pipe at the tabs with your claw hammer and it will come right apart.

 

[Islander08]

Thanks for the advice on the chimney ripout.

I ended up saw-zall'ing the first section, which was a 30deg offset/return pair. Gota love that saw-zall feeling.

Next I'll try pulling the pipes out separately from the roof on a calm day. If that gets a little scary, I think I can remove it by saw-zall'ing one more section from below. That still leaves enough for 15' of chimney, which is the minimum for the fireplace.

Will report on results...

Jeff