Greetings all, I've read through many of the stickied threads at the top of this forum so I hope this post is OK! I purchased my home about 6 years ago and haven't touched the fireplace at all until now, when I decided it was probably a good idea to see if it was usable and familiarize myself with doing so in case of a power and gas outage. It's a wood fireplace with a gas starter. I had a chimney inspection and sweeping done today since that had never been done, and while the inspector said the chimney itself seems to be in fine shape and wasn't very dirty, there were a few elements of the firebox itself that he wants to repair.
First, he pointed out a couple of small cracks in the masonry (which seems to be a thin insert) that should be sealed, which I'm fine with. He also wants to paint the entire insert as well as the gas burner with high-temp paint, as the gas burner has some rust spots which I assume are from previous roof leaks (I had the roof replaced shortly after buying the house) as there is definitely no water coming into the chimney now. What I'm not as sure about, and what really confused him as well, were these holes along the bottom of the insert:
There is also a hole in the siding right next to where the fireplace is:
I've just always assumed that somehow all of these holes connect to a duct that feeds to this outside intake, but the inspector said he'd never seen this arrangement before and he thinks that some part of it was modified after the house was built 30 years ago and now it's useless. He thinks the holes present a danger of fire getting out of the firebox through them and starting a fire outside the insert. He wants to seal up all of the holes in the insert, at which point I suppose I'd just use spray foam to seal up the outdoor end as well. Does that make sense? I've seen conflicting information about whether an outdoor air source is even useful, and as near as I can tell from searching local code it isn't a requirement here. I can definitely take more pictures but I'm not sure how much more information I can provide, since I don't know the brand/model of the insert, or anything like that.
First, he pointed out a couple of small cracks in the masonry (which seems to be a thin insert) that should be sealed, which I'm fine with. He also wants to paint the entire insert as well as the gas burner with high-temp paint, as the gas burner has some rust spots which I assume are from previous roof leaks (I had the roof replaced shortly after buying the house) as there is definitely no water coming into the chimney now. What I'm not as sure about, and what really confused him as well, were these holes along the bottom of the insert:
There is also a hole in the siding right next to where the fireplace is:
I've just always assumed that somehow all of these holes connect to a duct that feeds to this outside intake, but the inspector said he'd never seen this arrangement before and he thinks that some part of it was modified after the house was built 30 years ago and now it's useless. He thinks the holes present a danger of fire getting out of the firebox through them and starting a fire outside the insert. He wants to seal up all of the holes in the insert, at which point I suppose I'd just use spray foam to seal up the outdoor end as well. Does that make sense? I've seen conflicting information about whether an outdoor air source is even useful, and as near as I can tell from searching local code it isn't a requirement here. I can definitely take more pictures but I'm not sure how much more information I can provide, since I don't know the brand/model of the insert, or anything like that.
