I helped a friend install an old Frontier double door today. He has a real nice area set up from the previous owner so I figured it would be a snap getting the pipe and setting up.
Well, the pipe was certainly a breeze. The chimney however was a complete wreck. I have no idea how the po didn't burn the house down. We pulled the insulation from the thimble and all I could see was black. I stuck my hand in and it was pretty solid. We started to chip it away and fill a bucket. My friend climbed to the roof with a rope and a two foot long by 1 inch steel rod, kind of resembled a big nail. He proceeded to let it fall down the chimney for 20 or so minutes while I chipped from the bottom up. Finally, we broke through. He didn't have a brush and mine was too large so we put a nice size chain into an old feed bag, tied it off and used that to sweep the remaining portion. We ended up pulling a little better than a 5 gallon pail full out.
Now it was on to the section between the thimble and the clean out door. I guess it was about 4 to 5 feet in distance. My friend continued to pound from the top with the steel spike. After about ten or so drops, I'd clean out what I could by hand which amounted to about 10 handfuls at a time. It was packed and froze almost to the bottom! Once we were at a position where we could somewhat grasp the spike, I had him pull out a shop-vac and we chipped away, then vacuumed, chip, vacuum, chip, vacuum....Eventually we broke through and could use the bag and chain to finish clearing.
Needless to say, what I planned on taking about 2 hours, ended up 9am to 5pm. We did get every last bit of creosote out and the chimney looked to be in good shape.
We managed to get his pipe all hooked up with a flue damper and thermometer. He hasn't really burned wood before so I tried to set him up the right way. I spent about 30 minutes getting everything going and explaining how to manipulate the draft and flue dampers for different needs. I should have grabbed some photos but didn't think to take my camera. After all was said and done, we took 15 gallons of creosote. The temperature in his basement had gone from 54 to 60 in pretty short order while the paint on the pipe and stove cured.
Tripper
Well, the pipe was certainly a breeze. The chimney however was a complete wreck. I have no idea how the po didn't burn the house down. We pulled the insulation from the thimble and all I could see was black. I stuck my hand in and it was pretty solid. We started to chip it away and fill a bucket. My friend climbed to the roof with a rope and a two foot long by 1 inch steel rod, kind of resembled a big nail. He proceeded to let it fall down the chimney for 20 or so minutes while I chipped from the bottom up. Finally, we broke through. He didn't have a brush and mine was too large so we put a nice size chain into an old feed bag, tied it off and used that to sweep the remaining portion. We ended up pulling a little better than a 5 gallon pail full out.
Now it was on to the section between the thimble and the clean out door. I guess it was about 4 to 5 feet in distance. My friend continued to pound from the top with the steel spike. After about ten or so drops, I'd clean out what I could by hand which amounted to about 10 handfuls at a time. It was packed and froze almost to the bottom! Once we were at a position where we could somewhat grasp the spike, I had him pull out a shop-vac and we chipped away, then vacuumed, chip, vacuum, chip, vacuum....Eventually we broke through and could use the bag and chain to finish clearing.
Needless to say, what I planned on taking about 2 hours, ended up 9am to 5pm. We did get every last bit of creosote out and the chimney looked to be in good shape.
We managed to get his pipe all hooked up with a flue damper and thermometer. He hasn't really burned wood before so I tried to set him up the right way. I spent about 30 minutes getting everything going and explaining how to manipulate the draft and flue dampers for different needs. I should have grabbed some photos but didn't think to take my camera. After all was said and done, we took 15 gallons of creosote. The temperature in his basement had gone from 54 to 60 in pretty short order while the paint on the pipe and stove cured.
Tripper
