New stove/liner install in narrow 1757 chimney

[downfleeced]

Hi All,

I felt obligated to post about my install as i could NOT have done it without all the advice I gleaned while searching the boards here so THANK YOU for being such a wonderful resource!

The stove is a new Jotul F3CB, undersized for whole house heat but perfect for the space. Our house is a 1757 post and beam in Maine. The chimney is a unlined but "working" fireplace (one of 5 in the house).

The chimney inside diameter for this flue was 8" (one brick) by 30". the stove requires a 6" flue and I knew I would not be able to fit/install a insulated (or uninsulated probably) liner up the flue based on reading others experiences from this site. I could have purchased a ovalized liner online but I couldn't wrap my head around paying the extra $$ for what other people seem to be able to do themselves (squish it). So I picked up a standard 6" x35' liner from Rockford and studied up on how to ovalize it.

We did the install this past weekend starting with ovalizing it. I read that you could use a 2x10 and just straddle the liner and pancake it down some so I went that route with the addition of making sure to bevel the edges of the 2x10 to help it not put tiny kinks in the liner (which I saw done on a youtube clip). IT WORKED GREAT! In 20mins I had converted the 6" to a 4.5x7.5 (estimated) oval liner.

Next we had to cut out the brick and expand the damper area which we did with a angle grinder which made quick work of the brick.

Our chimney is a giant beast with a cementboard top cap over the 5 flues so we had to pull from the bottom. I made a pulling cone out of a piece of 2x10 which ended up I think making the difference on the amount of effort getting the liner up, being able to keep the liner centered in the flue so it wasn't dragging or getting caught on the bricks, PRICELESS.

Before the pull:



The pull when MUCH easier than I thought and I was able to use just my strength pulling and my falther-in-law guiding/pushing it up from the bottom. Before I knew it it was at the top!



I put the top plate on to hold the liner and then the next day (sorry I didn't have my phone) we poured loose fill perlite (mixed with concrete at the bottom) to insulate the flue which worked awesome and was pretty inexpensive, especially compared to some of the bagged insulation found at chimney sites.

Here is the final install:


A little hi temp paint on the liner and it will be done!



THANK YOU EVERYONE!

 

[nellraq]

Good job, and an excellent step by step report on how you did it!!
Question: you insulated with perlite, and "mixed with concrete at the bottom." Please explain the mixing with concrete at the bottom bit - I'm not following this!
Thanks.

 

[jharkin]

Hello and welcome!

Always nice to see another old house owner here

 

[downfleeced]

Sure! I read here and elsewhere that people ran into issues,particularly perlite/vermiculite dust sneaking past the damper plate using loose fill. The standard fix was to create a plug at the bottom mixing the loose fill with a bag of cement to hold the rest of the loose fill back.

Good job, and an excellent step by step report on how you did it!!
Question: you insulated with perlite, and "mixed with concrete at the bottom." Please explain the mixing with concrete at the bottom bit - I'm not following this!
Thanks.