Unsafe "thimble" ?

[polyfractal]

Hi all. We recently moved to an old farmhouse in upstate NY. Just prior to moving in, our new landlord told us that she could obtain us a wood stove, since the house had a chimney and hookup available. We agreed, and she purchased us a VC Vigilant for a good price.

However, we are new to wood stoves, so I've been reading furiously about how everything is setup and have been building a hearth/wall shield. Two main problems have cropped up:

1. The Vigilant wants an 8" flue, and it looks like ours is 6". From what I've read this is not ideal, but could possibly work with heavy caveats. Since we already have the stove we are going to try... but won't hesitate to sell the stove for one that can accommodate a 6" pipe instead if the Vigilant doesn't work out. The stove itself appears in good condition (gaskets are good, no cracks, etc), just needs a bit of rust removal.
   
   
2. More worrying, it looks like the "thimble" isn't a thimble at all. To my untrained eye, it looks like a stretch of normal HVAC ducting, mortared on all sides to the brick and passes directly through drywall. It is also within a few inches of a wood panel wall.

I'm new to wood stoves, but from everything I've read this looks very unsafe. Can someone confirm/deny? Is that indeed just HVAC ducting? What should I do?

I'm assuming I need to:

1. Strip the wood paneling back 8-10" (as recommended in our Vigilant manual)
2. Strip the drywall back 8-10"
3. Replace the HVAC with a real thimble? Replace with double-walled stovepipe? How big of a project is this?

Pictures attached, any help would be very appreciated. It feels like this project is slowly snowballing into a headache.

Please ignore the creosote...we have a guy coming to clean the chimney soon

 

[pen]

yep, that paneling needs to be pulled down and what you are working with further assessed before any wood burning appliance is hooked to that.

Who ever lived here before, had a guardian angel. Not only for the botched install, but from what I'm seeing in that pipe, they were lucky.

In saying that, I'm only commenting on the "thimble" / "crock", what can you say about the chimney itself?

Good on you for spotting the concern, sorry to hear this is happening in a rental...... As that makes structural changes tough.

Considering the circumstances, this needs a CSIA sweep to check this thing out, before things go any closer to lighting things up.

In the meantime, start planning on other heating methods.

pen

 

[polyfractal]

yep, that paneling needs to be pulled down and what you are working with further assessed before any wood burning appliance is hooked to that.

Who ever lived here before, had a guardian angel. Not only for the botched install, but from what I'm seeing in that pipe, they were lucky.

Argh, that's what I feared. Thanks for the quick reply...I'll start talking to the landlord to get something sorted out.

In saying that, I'm only commenting on the "thimble" / "crock", what can you say about the chimney itself?

The chimney is ~15' tall, straight up. External chimney. Flashing around the top looks...dodgy. The access hatch at the bottom shows similar creosote accumulation as the thimble area. I haven't taken a picture of the inside (looking up) yet, but I would assume it's the same all the way to the top. No idea about the construction chimney itself. One oddity I noticed is that the accumulation chamber is 8" square, but the depth at the "thimble" is only 6". I don't know if it is normal for the bottom chamber to be larger, or perhaps there is a liner in the chimney?

Considering the circumstances, this needs a CSIA sweep to check this thing out, before things go any closer to lighting things up.

In the meantime, start planning on other heating methods.

Thanks, I didn't know there was certification. We're going to cancel the current appointment (the guy isn't certified apparently) and reschedule with a CSIA to check the place out.

Luckily, we also have oil heat...so I guess we'll just stock up on oil for now

 

[pen]

I'm very sorry to see of the circumstance, but very happy to hear of your mindset in doing this right.

Wood burning is wonderful, but only if one can sleep knowing it is safe.

Well done.

Keep us posted!

pen

 

[begreen]

Type in your zip code here for a list of certified CSIA sweeps.
www.csia.org

 

[smokedragon]

Wood burning is wonderful, but only if one can sleep knowing it is safe.

+1 to that.

Yeah that install looks really scary. I guess the previous folks were lucky they were burning really green wood. All that water kept them from getting exhaust temps hot enough to burn the place down.

Best of luck with your situation, but it sounds like a pretty involved job.