How do I put in a chimney liner ?

[fitwind]

thanks everyone for all your respones on my last posting. I have decided that I will have to put in a chimney liner. So now I just need to know what to do. Has anyone put in one that can give me pointers. At least that is going to be one of the first things I am going to try and do. I just need to know if DH and I can do this this ourselves. We really try to do as many things by ourselves that we can. I love having a fire and not paying those horrible electric bills. Ohh by the way this is a great forum and everyone is so nice.

 

[Pagey]

Take about 8 minutes to watch this, please. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRauuzjI-H4

 

[South of Boston]

Very easy to do but wear gloves edges can be very sharp.

 

[badger1968]

Agree with Southie . . . it is pretty easy in most cases. You will want some tough gloves and some tin snips (or reciprocal saw). The height of your flue above the roof, the angle of your roof, and the bends in your flue are important factors to consider. The darn thing is unwieldy and requires a fair amount of twisting and shoving even down a fairly straight flue. I'd recommend two people up top shoving and twisting and one person below (wearing safety glasses!) "catching." Go slow and be careful up on that roof! Good luck!

 

[Hogwildz]

If you have extra liner length, make a cone out of the end and use a rope to pull from below & a person push & twist at top.

 

[weezer4117]

are you going to insulate the liner??? somthin else to consider/ think about!?!?!?! in my expierence with this kind of install, it takes longer to insulate then to install. i would recomend that you do insulate, better draft, less creo buildup due to mantaining high temps, some local codes my require this, insurance, etc.....

 

[theheatelement]

I just finished lining my chimney. It took me (and the wife) about four or five hours, an hour of which was attaching the boot to the top of my wood burning insert. You can't do it alone, you'll need some help on the roof. Watch the video above or get your education from chimneylinerinc.com or chimneylinerdepot.com.

The only complication I had was that I had a 5 1/4" wide damper. I could have cut a portion of it out (I ran 8" liner), but I chose to use a short section of oval pipe instead. It worked out great.

The liner is stiffer than it looks in the video and is hard to handle while you balance up on the roof. You'll need a little help, but it's not bad at all.

I ended up looking for a local retailer and it was worth it. I got free advice from a couple of installers and had all the parts right the first time.

For example: Don't use snips or a sawzall or anything else to cut the liner. Use your pocket knife. Yep, pocket knife. I used my pocket knife (A good quality Benchmade). At first, I didnt' take his advice and tried tin snips, but they were a pain. Decided to give the pocket knife a shot and it cut the liner like butter. I had to sharpen my knife after that, but I made 3 cuts in all and the knife was the easiest.

-Adrian

Did you put a gas stove in or a wood stove, stainless shouldn't cut like butter and that sounds more like you were cutting through aluminum... I would be very weary of cutting through stainless with a nice, I've been working with this material for years and would always take snips over a knife.

 

[BrotherBart]

Did you put a gas stove in or a wood stove, stainless shouldn't cut like butter and that sounds more like you were cutting through aluminum... I would be very weary of cutting through stainless with a nice, I've been working with this material for years and would always take snips over a knife.

I have installed three 316ti stainless flex liners. Except for the seam a pocket knife is the easiest way to cut them and they do cut like butter. A tin snip is sometimes required to clip the seam.

Go out in the shop and give it a try.

 

[GaryS]

My 12 year old son and I intalled a 20' liner kit in a couple hours. Best two hours i ever spent. I needed him to make sure the Tee hole was lined up with the thimble. cutting the top to size was the biggest pain. hard to do a real neat job with a snips.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The best tool I've found for singlewall is my angle grinder with a cutting wheel. I wonder if this would make a nice smooth cut with the liner also.

Matt