Buying house- chimney inspection

[Ctwoodtick]

we are going to be looking at moving. Some of the houses we are looking at are pretty old and have large stone chimneys. It would be great to run a free standing stove with an insulated liner in one of those. I’d like to be able to word any contracts we get into in a way where the sale is contingent upon chimney inspection by chimney pro of MY choice, being that there could be potentially centuries worth of creosote in there.
Curious if others of you have had experience with this and have any pointers for me. Last thing I want to do is inherit a really expensive problem. Thanks in advance.

 

[bholler]

Not much to it you can have it inspected by who ever you want. Just put it in the offer.

 

[blades]

pretty common, make sure who ever does it has camera equipment. and that you get a copy of it. Old Flue systems have a bad habit of falling apart when not used for long periods, exhaust + normal atmospheric moisture creates acids that eat at the mortar joints. Video will also tell how much of a pain it will be to line it. If it will even be possible. Like you said don't want to buy into a nightmare.

 

[barnaclebob]

You don't really even need to do anything special in the offer. Just make sure it says you can do any inspections you want.

 

[KennyK]

I believe once your offer is accepted you have about ten days or so to do any inspections you like - the standard one is a home inspection company, around where I am people recommend a radon check, from there you can bring in a chimney company, and as blades wrote, have them do a camera inspection. Get all inspection info in writing and you can use that info to try to negotiate some repairs or price adjustment (that said, houses usually come with things that need fixin' so you might not get to far depending on what it is).