Venting Wood Stove Into An Old Chimney. Help!

[Beardy Brit]

Hi Everyone, I'd really appreciate your thoughts on installing a small Defender 2 wood stove in my century home. I have a brick chimney, not lined but 2 bricks thick, as far as I can tell, that has a vent hole for a stove. My house is 180 years old and I'm guessing the chimney is slightly newer at around 150 years old. The chimney is in very sound condition. I was hoping to be able to easily run a vent pipe down it but after inspecting it fully I found that the chimney width reduces down to just 4.5" wide, pleased see attached pics.

I'm guessing you are going to tell me what I don't want to hear that there is no solution short of running a new vent pipe up through the ceiling and roof, which I definitely don't want to do because I want to retain the charm of the old house. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I might be able to solve this frustrating problem? Can I still use the chimney without a vent installing a vent pipe? Does it make any difference that it's a smaller wood stove which won't be producing as much heat as a larger one? I'm not sure it makes much difference but I read that older bricks are actually a good thing because they are fired harder when made. Interestingly all the bricks in the house were made on site.

Any advice you can give would be VERY much appreciated. I was really excited to get this stove put in but now it seems like that won't be possible, hoping you can all tell me otherwise. Pics attached for reference.

 

[ctyankee]

I sympathize. I had/have a similar situation (though yours is even more difficult given the flue size) and in the end went with new pipe thru ceiling and roof. I have no regrets and am glad I went that route. Good luck finding an installer who will work with that chimney. Maybe an ovalized liner? I'm not sure I understand the charm part. You'd like to have smoke coming out of the brick chimney and not have a few feet of shiny metal up on the roof? Don't worry about it. It'll look fine. I have same look on my roof on end of house. Without the angle you'll have a better draft. You probably have clearance issues with existing pass thru on right side with that closet? there, and probably too close to ceiling. Move on and you'll be fine.

 

[bholler]

Hi Everyone, I'd really appreciate your thoughts on installing a small Defender 2 wood stove in my century home. I have a brick chimney, not lined but 2 bricks thick, as far as I can tell, that has a vent hole for a stove. My house is 180 years old and I'm guessing the chimney is slightly newer at around 150 years old. The chimney is in very sound condition. I was hoping to be able to easily run a vent pipe down it but after inspecting it fully I found that the chimney width reduces down to just 4.5" wide, pleased see attached pics.

I'm guessing you are going to tell me what I don't want to hear that there is no solution short of running a new vent pipe up through the ceiling and roof, which I definitely don't want to do because I want to retain the charm of the old house. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I might be able to solve this frustrating problem? Can I still use the chimney without a vent installing a vent pipe? Does it make any difference that it's a smaller wood stove which won't be producing as much heat as a larger one? I'm not sure it makes much difference but I read that older bricks are actually a good thing because they are fired harder when made. Interestingly all the bricks in the house were made on site.

Any advice you can give would be VERY much appreciated. I was really excited to get this stove put in but now it seems like that won't be possible, hoping you can all tell me otherwise. Pics attached for reference.

View attachment 267302View attachment 267303View attachment 267304View attachment 267305View attachment 267306View attachment 267307

View attachment 267301

Where does it narrow down at?

 

[rwhite]

Probably off topic of what they asked but can a pellet stove be directly vented to a chimney? Just curious if all else fails if that is a solution.

 

[bholler]

Probably off topic of what they asked but can a pellet stove be directly vented to a chimney? Just curious if all else fails if that is a solution.

Not that one

 

[Beardy Brit]

Where does it narrow down at?

It narrows down just above the point where the vent hole is.

 

[bholler]

It narrows down just above the point where the vent hole is.

And it is 2 courses thick?

 

[begreen]

Hmm, not sure if you could bust out the few bricks above it to increase clearance. This would take some close measuring. Is there anything else venting into this chimney? Looks like it was designed for a fireplace.

 

[bholler]

If it is 2 courses thick I an sure you could remove some of the inner layer. If not remove some brick and corbel out to make room

 

[Beardy Brit]

I sympathize. I had/have a similar situation (though yours is even more difficult given the flue size) and in the end went with new pipe thru ceiling and roof. I have no regrets and am glad I went that route. Good luck finding an installer who will work with that chimney. Maybe an ovalized liner? I'm not sure I understand the charm part. You'd like to have smoke coming out of the brick chimney and not have a few feet of shiny metal up on the roof? Don't worry about it. It'll look fine. I have same look on my roof on end of house. Without the angle you'll have a better draft. You probably have clearance issues with existing pass thru on right side with that closet? there, and probably too close to ceiling. Move on and you'll be fine.

Thank you. I agree in principle. The difficulty is that this is a locally historic house so I really don’t want to change the historic design. I’m now considering a tiny house stove because we really only want to heat the room. Those stoves have a 4” pipe which would fit.

And it is 2 courses thick?

Yes.

 

[Beardy Brit]

Hmm, not sure if you could bust out the few bricks above it to increase clearance. This would take some close measuring. Is there anything else venting into this chimney? Looks like it was designed for a fireplace.

There is nothing else. I’m not sure how I could get down to break out the bricks...it’s a smaller chimney. Maybe an extra long jack hammer chisel if there is such a thing?

 

[bholler]

There is nothing else. I’m not sure how I could get down to break out the bricks...it’s a smaller chimney. Maybe an extra long jack hammer chisel if there is such a thing?

Open it up from inside to give you access. Really not that big of a deal

 

[rwhite]

Is the 4.5" narrowing measured off the edge of the crock to the back wall? Looking at the pic down the chimney it appears that it is 1 brick length. Just curious if the inside of the crock sticks inside a few inches could that be modified to get a liner through.

 

[ctyankee]

Thank you. I agree in principle. The difficulty is that this is a locally historic house so I really don’t want to change the historic design. I’m now considering a tiny house stove because we really only want to heat the room. Those stoves have a 4” pipe which would fit.

Ok I respect the fact you are concerned with the original historic design. I added new chimney to later addition, it would have been more difficult decision to add to original part of house (Cape Cod). Whatever happened to poured liners or sealers? Are any companies doing this?

 

[bholler]

Ok I respect the fact you are concerned with the original historic design. I added new chimney to later addition, it would have been more difficult decision to add to original part of house (Cape Cod). Whatever happened to poured liners or sealers? Are any companies doing this?

They simply don't hold up and it doesn't help if there isn't enough space

 

[Starbrightsteve]

Do oval liners exist? Or could you take 4’ sections of 6” round stainless pipe and make it oval to fit your chimney? If you decide to do this, I suggest you first take a piece of cheap 6” pipe and make it oval and then lower it down all the way just to make sure there are no bricks out of alignment with the others. And don’t forget you will need to cap the end of the pipe and cut a round hole for the vent pipe connnection.
Just another idea.

 

[bholler]

Do oval liners exist? Or could you take 4’ sections of 6” round stainless pipe and make it oval to fit your chimney? If you decide to do this, I suggest you first take a piece of cheap 6” pipe and make it oval and then lower it down all the way just to make sure there are no bricks out of alignment with the others. And don’t forget you will need to cap the end of the pipe and cut a round hole for the vent pipe connnection.
Just another idea.

An oval with proper insulation that would fit inside a 4" chimney would only be 2.5 to 3" inside. It will not draft properly at all the only chance of it working would be to go up in size before ovalizing to maintain volume. But even then I doubt it would work

 

[Starbrightsteve]

Once upon a time this chimney was used as is. Everyone thinks a liner in a bare brick is the safest way to go including me. I think most everyone would say an insulated liner would be best but there is no room for insulation. I say ditch the “proper insulation” and try to send an oval liner down the hole.

 

[bholler]

Once upon a time this chimney was used as is. Everyone thinks a liner in a bare brick is the safest way to go including me. I think most everyone would say an insulated liner would be best but there is no room for insulation. I say ditch the “proper insulation” and try to send an oval liner down the hole.

Even uninsulated ovalized down that much is not likely to work. I guarantee there is no clearance from that chimney to combustible materials and that wood is now super dry and the ignition point is very low. Yes you may get away with an uninsulated liner. Hell you may even get away with running no liner. But it is a big risk and if you install a new stove in a non compliant chimney it is a clear violation of code giving your insurance company grounds to reject a claim.

 

[MTASH]

Rigid oval insulated DuraLiner is only 4-7/8", so if you could figure out a way to remove some bricks that would have a good chance of working.

It really looks wider than 4.5" to me in the pics, are you certain the narrow measurement is inside brick-to-brick, or is it simply due to the crock protruding further in to the chimney? Can you reach through the crock and feel if it is protruding? An extra 1/2" would make a big difference in this case.