I recently purchased a house build in the 50's and had a chimney inspection. As soon as the inspector looked up my chimney he noticed that the smoke chamber is square with 90 degree angles. He said that the smoke chamber should be a shaped like an upside down funnel and since it has 90 degree angles the fireplace system could not pass the fire saftey code inspection and was failed. Does anyone know if this is correct? Unsafe?
smoke chamber is square
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He's right on the normal shape of a smoke chamber, it should give a smooth transition from the firebox to the chimney, and square corners ain't smooth... The fireplace would probably not work well with that design, I'd expect to see some level of backpuffing on a smoky fire. I would be surprised if the unit worked well even under the best of conditions, and by the low standards of fireplace performance.
Safe is a seperate question, essentially there are minimum thickness requirements for the masonry in different areas, as well as clearance requirements between the masonry and any surrounding wood structure. In theory if those requirements were met, you might be safe, but if they did such a strange job on the smoke chamber, I'd be suspicious about what other shortcuts might have been taken...
However, it probably would be possible to install a modern EPA insert with a full length liner (maybe insulation might be required) and a blockoff plate, which would give you a safe install, with good performance and heating behaviour.
Gooserider
Safe is a seperate question, essentially there are minimum thickness requirements for the masonry in different areas, as well as clearance requirements between the masonry and any surrounding wood structure. In theory if those requirements were met, you might be safe, but if they did such a strange job on the smoke chamber, I'd be suspicious about what other shortcuts might have been taken...
However, it probably would be possible to install a modern EPA insert with a full length liner (maybe insulation might be required) and a blockoff plate, which would give you a safe install, with good performance and heating behaviour.
Gooserider
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