Problem with Custom Made Fireplace

[JohnnyRingo2007]

I have a friend that paid a lot of money to have this custom fireplace put in and they are having problems with it and the contractor won't do anything about it. It has a 6 inch chimney. I am not sure about the height but it runs all the way above the 2 story house so its at least 20 foot. It starts off fine but after about 15 minutes the smoke starts coming into the house and doesn't stop. Is their anything obvious wrong that anyone can tell from the pictures My friend doesn't know what to do. If I need to get some different pictures let me know. Any suggestion?

 

[webby3650]

Things look just fine. Inside is where the problems lay though.
The first thing that is blindingly obvious is the 6" flue. That would typically have a 10" round flue or a 12"x12" clay flue. How is the smoke chamber? Is it parged smooth or is it all rough brick? If it's not parged smooth problems can be magnified. Bottom line, it needs a bigger flue. That's a big problem!

 

[begreen]

Yes, 6" is totally inadequate for the chimney. The contractor should have gotten some guidance before construction. One has to wonder what other blatant errors were made considering this one. How did it ever pass inspection?

FWIW, this info is easily available and common knowledge to masons.
(broken link removed to http://www.whysanity.net/richardstone/CHIM)SIZING.PDF

 

[webby3650]

My fireplace has a 10" round SS liner, it still had issues with smoking out until I added the arch. It reduced the size of the opening just enough. Mine appears to be about half as tall as yours.
The size of the flue is directly related to the size of the opening.

 

[JohnnyRingo2007]

I don't know about the smoke chamber. I will get better pictures when I can. Where we are from there is no inspection on really anything. I am building a new house and the only inspector I will see is for the septic system. No one will look at my two chimneys. Thanks a lot for the advice. He had a 10 people with no idea telling him how to fix it. Can this fix be done very easy or will that just depend on how its been built?

 

[webby3650]

Is the flue clay or Stainless Steel? With that size it will most likely be impossible to fix unfortunately. You would need to know if there is any room around the existing flue. Tearing the crown off is the only way to know for sure.

 

[bholler]

With out seeing how it is made we cant say but regardless it wont be easy. best case scenario is it has a class a chimney on top of it that would be easy to change but not cheap. If it is masonry structure it probably means tearing the top down and starting over. But cant say without seeing it

 

[begreen]

I would get a professional assessment in writing of the situation. This is fairly basic math. If the contractor doesn't own up this could end up in court. Not sure what he could do at this point however other than a rebuild of the chimney.