I made some prior posts about my 8x8 clay lined / cement ring chimney having a cracked liner. I have stopped burning and am at the point where I need to take action. The current state is my liner is cracked, by thimble is cracked, and the top of my chimney had some non professional brick work done that is also failing. To add to my hatred for this chimney its builds shiny creosote seemingly pretty easily (maybe due to cold flue?)
I have called out a few professionals and here are my options....
Option A- Remove the top of the chimney and rebuild it properly and install an **Non insulated liner** within the old clay liner. The chimney builder said the clay liner could act as the insulator. Is this correct?
I asked about an Option B - Same as above, but knock out the clay liner and install an insulated liner. The builder is going to look into this
Option C - Knock down the chimney, fix the side of the house and go with a new class A
To spice this up even further my current thimble isn't up to code, I don't know all of the details until we start breaking into the wall to see. But it appears it is not insulated from combustibles properly. So no matter what direction I go I need to cut into the (stone veneered) interior wall and install a proper thimble and then make it all look pretty again.
What would you guys do? It looks like all options will be expensive, but I'm in between a rock and a hard place because this is our heat. Most of all I want peace of mind that I have the safest possible setup
Thanks in advance for the advice.
I have called out a few professionals and here are my options....
Option A- Remove the top of the chimney and rebuild it properly and install an **Non insulated liner** within the old clay liner. The chimney builder said the clay liner could act as the insulator. Is this correct?
I asked about an Option B - Same as above, but knock out the clay liner and install an insulated liner. The builder is going to look into this
Option C - Knock down the chimney, fix the side of the house and go with a new class A
To spice this up even further my current thimble isn't up to code, I don't know all of the details until we start breaking into the wall to see. But it appears it is not insulated from combustibles properly. So no matter what direction I go I need to cut into the (stone veneered) interior wall and install a proper thimble and then make it all look pretty again.
What would you guys do? It looks like all options will be expensive, but I'm in between a rock and a hard place because this is our heat. Most of all I want peace of mind that I have the safest possible setup
Thanks in advance for the advice.