Liner Going In

[KDubU]

Scaffolding is almost done with final section, number six, setup today. Getting my harness and other safety equipment tomorrow. Will be cutting open the damper tomorrow and then the liner will be installed Sunday. A bit of a beast to get all setup but once done, I’ll be glad. More images to comes as I get through all this.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

That scaffolding will make it easier to force that liner down! Good on ya for tying in!

 

[Crab]

Good luck with the liner install. Looks pretty cool up there. Be safe. I rented a trailerable lift as scaffolding was not feasable.

 

[KDubU]

Attached the pull cap this morning. Screwed it on tight and then for backup, wrapped some heavy duty tape around it as well. Should be fun getting this up 30ft. Now to finish opening up the damper area in the chimney.

 

[KDubU]

Removed a good chunk of the damper and some brick.

Before using just a mini sledge hammer:



After using the mason chisel that I picked up yesterday:

 

[KDubU]

Okay it’s in. Bloody hell that was a job I don’t want to do again. I dare anyone to compare how I got it done so here is the summary:

- installed 6 levels of scaffolding and secured to house and deck it was on (total feet from ground was 42’)

- got the pull cone all attached and secured with duck tape added

- hauled the 35’ of pre-insulated pipe from the exterior garage around the house up onto the deck (thing is a lot heavier than I thought)

- purchased all the safety gear to tie off with

- tied a rope to the cone and tried to haul the liner up about 1/3 of the scaffolding and it seemed okay. Tried to pull another 10’ and was like crap, this may not work.

- tied off liner at about the 15’ mark on scaffolding

- climbed to the top with another rope attached to the pull cap (did I say I am afraid of heights?) and my wife untied it at 15’ mark.

- started to haul on the liner and probably got to 20’ and then it was a no go. Too heavy and even with safety equipment tied off I was questioning the sanity of this.

- let the liner go to the ground and felt frustrated and defeated.

- wife and I chatted about how to get it up there as she is a great problem solver and we landed on the Kubota! Yup my beloved tractor.

- tied the climbing rope the bucket of the tractor, slowly started to raise the liner up the side of the scaffold. Easy peasy and it went smooth all the way to the top. Then I had to get it over the last rail of the scaffold, tired multiple ways by hand up at the top and no go as the tension was too high. Wife got in tractor to give me some slack but the liner would just go down. Frustrated and definitely defeated again. Ready to toss it all and sell the stove. Left the liner up hanging attached to the Kubota for the night.

- next day decided I’ll never get it over the top of the rail on that section of the scaffold plus it was getting dangerous. Decided to try to go from bottom up so let the liner down, untied it from Kubota and prepped the inside of the house for the giant snake of a thing.

- tested getting the liner started and realized the bricks I removed was not enough! Crap…out comes the mini sledge, mason chisel and reciprocating saw again. Took out another brick, cut out more metal. Tried the liner again and it fits so pushed it up 10’ feet and thought, easy peasy but then thought about how to make it easier to pull up while way up there with all this weight…went and bought a hand winch at HD.

- built a small wood frame, attached the hand to inch and unwound the cable on it which is only 21’ so knew it would not get right to the top but thought I could pull the last bit up by hand.

- climbed back up top the scaffold, brought up the hand winch and frame in a bag tied to a rope. Got all setup with wife inside to help guide the liner. Started to crank and voila, the liner was coming up the chimney! Kept at it but then the winch line started to twist and bind as it was pulling on a bit of an angle. After multiple times untangling, had to get a large nail pull to force the winch strap to go on straight. Finally got the winch all wound up and looked into the chimney and the cone was still 10’ down. Tried to pull on the rope, it would not budge. Wife tried helping push from below, nada. Well I did not know what to do and was running low on energy when I thought of the Kubota again!

- brought out the Kubota, tied the climbing rope to the loader, attached that to the rope tied to the cone and then go into the cab. Slowly backed her up with my wife on her phone inside monitoring and up it went right up to the top. Then after checking on where it was at the top, needed another foot or so, got back into the tractor and lowered the loader and then, bang off comes the pull cap and rope! Climbed back up and it’s right up out the top of the chimney, almost perfect.

Now comes installing the stove which I will start on this weekend. Need a break and will need to bring down all the scaffolding.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Good job! I rented a lift when I did mine. It carried the weight down the arm. I had a guy tugging it down while I was up too jumping up and down while twisting.

 

[Max W]

What an ordeal but you both hung in there and wouldn’t let that liner defeat you.