Redo the chimney or just go through the wall?

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Cdvorak

New Member
Oct 7, 2025
3
Colorado springs
Hi, thanks in advance for any help. I have a brick single story house built in 1900. It does have 6 chimneys but we only use one. We put in a liner long ago., but it's rotten and I'm about to pull it out. The stove never seemed to draft properly and we quit using it due to health issues. Lots of ash in the house. The bricks would need to be replaced and I do have high temperature bricks from my ceramic kiln I could use, if those would work. It just seems easier to go out through the wall and up the side of the house. I'm not sure how far across I can go or how far up I should go, but it seems it would be easier and way more cost effective. I live at 9700 feet. It would be nice to get it going this winter. Thanks for any advice.
 
At almost 10000 feet and a single story house I would want to go straight up. You already had draft problems and adding a 90 will just make them worse. Most stove need a minimum of 13-15 feet chimney height to draft properly and that is at sea level with a straight flue. Adding a 90 and almost 10000 ft elevation means you actually need like 18 feet to draft properly.
 
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Probably more like 22’ from the blaze king manual.
 

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Hopefully the OP has an easier breathing stove.
BK states minimum is 15’. I have not seen any stove below 12-13’. I’d rather have the extra length and double wall to boot at 10,000 ft.
 
The stove flue is about 7 feet up inside the house so it already has a 90. I would be adding a foot across, but I could go up as high as needed. The old one is 14'. It's an airtight stove that doesn't seem to burn efficiently.
 
The stove flue is about 7 feet up inside the house so it already has a 90. I would be adding a foot across, but I could go up as high as needed. The old one is 14'. It's an airtight stove that doesn't seem to burn efficiently.
The flue system is too short for some stoves, even at sea level. At high altitudes, much more height is needed to keep the draft strong. Straight up is definitely the best in this case. Adding two 90º turns in the smoke path, (inside 90º and outside Tee), really slows down the draft. It's roughly equivalent to losing 2 ft per 90º turn of chimney height.

PS: It's not typical for a stainless liner to rot out. Was this old liner stainless steel or regular single-wall black stovepipe?
 
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I can do two 45s and just go to the outside. That should help. It is stainless, just over used. I'll inspect it, but the top two feet that are exposed have disintegrated. I can go a little higher also, with the outside option.