Need New Chimney

[kuhner]

My house is a split foyer style. I have my stove in the basement family room. The previous owner installed a masonary chimney but never tied the footer into the house footer, so now the chimney is falling over. I live in rural Eastern Ohio and can not find anyone who is willing to take a look at it to see if the footer can be raised.
So I think I need to go another route. The house is built on a slope so the floor of the basement is about 8 feet below grade making the flue pipe opening about 4 feet down.
Any suggestions or am I locked into digging down to the footer and trying to tie it in. A couple masons I spoke to are not real keen on this idea, there is gravel and footer drains around the footer.

Thasnk
greg

 

[billb3]

This is an outside beside the house single flue chimney that was never and now can't be strapped to the house ?

 

[kuhner]

Yes outside never strapped to house. Chimney ran up beside the siding.

 

[bholler]

Well you dont have to tie it into the fotter of the house you just need to dig down to whatever depth is required for your area and pour a proper footer. Another option is to take the chimney down and run a class a chimney.

 

[mol1jb]

Sounds like a huge job. Demo and installing class A metal chimney sounds like much less work and probably a better result in the end.

 

[begreen]

If you do decide to go with a metal chimney this would be a good time to rethink the room layout and stove location. if the stove could be located more centrally and close to the stairs with a straightup chimney (boxed in up through the first floor), then you would avoid having a tee 3-4ft below grade and improved draft with a better performing and cleaner chimney.

If it must be exterior and below grade consider raising the thimble height to 9-12" below the ceiling and use double-wall connector for the closer clearance. The tee would still need to be in a well that is kept clean of debris and leaf accumulation.

 

[bholler]

The tee would still need to be in a well that is kept clean of debris and leaf accumulation.

In cases like this many times we will take the masonry chimney down to just above grade. Line and insulate that small section then transition to class a from there up. It works well and avoids big wells that can cause big water problems.