Chimney cleaning question

[tabner]

This flue has been oil boiler exhaust for atleast 12 years. Disconnecting the boiler soon and installing a woodstove. Even tho oil boilers don't produce creosote (to my knowledge) I wanted to give it one good clean and inspection prior to the switch. I cleaned from the top down with a soot eater today. These photos are from prior to cleaning. I think the flue looks good. Just a thin lair of fine black soot from the oil boiler. After the cleaning I was not able to get another good picture because of all the particulate floating in the flue air blocked the light. But basically it looked the same after cleaning. This is that notorious black soot that sticks to everything and is super tiny particles. I would call the coating on the flue wall more of a thin coating, rather than any actual substance or layering. Short of scrubbing this stuff with a soapy sponge (not happening obviously) I don't see a way to remove the black discoloration/soot. Should I be at all concerned? Or am I good to go?

 

[bholler]

The black is no problem. The lack of mortar in the joints between tiles is. Does the chimney have the required clearance to combustibles?

 

[tabner]

The black is no problem. The lack of mortar in the joints between tiles is. Does the chimney have the required clearance to combustibles?

I believe it does. Looking up from the basement it does look like the framing is intentionally set back from the chimney, and there is only metal flashing up against the chimney to separate between floors. It's hard to tell all the way up though. thank you for the reminder, I'm going to climb in the attic and just take a look at the framing up there, as well as try and look down the side of the chimney from that angle, just to get a second perspective.

 

[tabner]

These photos are hard to see, but it definitely looks good to me. All the framing is set back at least 4" probably closer to 6" all the way around. The solid surface at the bottom that touches the chimney is metal flashing where the second floor is. So same design as I see looking up in the basement - framing set back, with aluminum flashing to separate between floors.