My contractor said I need a new liner.

[brenn1tj]

Hey Everyone,

Brand new poster here. I posed a question in a different corner of the internet and was given direction to come to this site and ask the experts.

My wife and I are undergoing a kitchen renovation/central air installment in our roughly 90 year old two story plus basement row house in DC. When our contractor went up on the roof he found that our chimney had started to crumble around the top. When he brought in his expert he gave up a quote on repairs of $4,000 that includes fixing the brick "down about 19 courses" (apparently it has a crack in it) and installing a new stainless steel liner.

Our chimney is attached to our boiler and hot water heater, but not a fire place. I'm 90% sure it has a clay liner as the guy who installed the boiler a few months ago found a clay mold of some sort that had fallen off. Granted, since a piece fell off I'm sure it isn't in perfect shape, but I assume that was from the top where it crumbled.

Essentially, I'm wondering if this is completely necessary to do. To the best of my knowledge, no one has died from carbon monoxide leaking through the clay/brick in the house's existence, and I have actually never heard of that happening before period (of course I've never looked for specific occurrences of that happening).

If you do view it as necessary, is $4,000 a fair quote?

I understand that this business is the livelihood of many here, so I appreciate any honest feedback. Thanks so much!

 

[Nick Mystic]

If your chimney is crumbling as you say it is then you're going to have to do the masonry repairs or else you'll end up with more damage down the line that will cost even more to fix. I can't help you out on the quote you received since labor prices vary a lot from region to region and I'm not familiar with D.C rates. I know housing costs are high there, so I assume labor costs are high, as well. As for the SS liner I would think if you have pieces of a clay liner falling down the chimney then a liner is going to be needed. As for carbon monoxide not making it through cracks in a tile flue and brick chimney, I couldn't comment on that. However, I would be concerned with more debris from your crumbling chimney/clay liner falling and perhaps blocking the gasses from being able to exit your structure. If you boiler is burning in the basement and the flue becomes blocked I would think the carbon monoxide could build up to the point that it starts entering the parts of your home that are occupied. You definitely should be thinking about some carbon monoxide detectors if don't already have them installed both in your basement near your boiler and in your living room spaces, particularly the bedrooms where people sleep. Good Luck.

 

[3650]

Get at least 3 estimates.

 

[bholler]

With out seeing your house and chimney $4000 does not seem out of line to rebuild the top and put in what is probably close to 30' of stainless liner. And yes if the top is coming apart and there was clay in the bottom of the chimney i would bet you need a liner. Especially with a new boiler it is probably higher efficiency and is putting allot more moisture into the chimney which will speed up the degradation. And like nick mystic said it is not really co leaking through the chimney that is the biggest concern (although it can happen) it is debris falling and blocking the flue causing a backup. But i would absolutely recommend getting multiple estimates but i would not necessarily just go with the cheapest one you need to check references and make sure they are doing it right and using the right products.

 

[Charles1981]

Get more estimates and evaluations before proceeding.