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Western North Carolina's charming, old masonry chimneys might come with some unwanted baggage. While they appear fine on the exterior, they may suffer from cracks, deterioration, or broken clay liners. This can translate into smoke, carbon monoxide and even fire seeping back into a home -- often with unfortunate side effects.
Most older masonry chimneys were built with clay tile liners that can deteriorate over time or can be damaged by weather, chimney fires, or foundation settling. This deterioration or damage can result in missing or cracked clay tiles that leave the chimney compromised. The lack of stable flue tiles can also provide opportunity for the gases from a fire to penetrate the brick and mortar, reducing the usable life of the chimney and creating gaps in the mortar joints.
When these conditions exist, problems can occur. For example, carbon monoxide can seep back into the living structure of a home. Or, sparks from a fire can escape through a crack in the chimney wall into a flammable portion of the home's construction. Even prolonged exposure to the heat from flue gases leaking through cracked or broken clay liners can pose a significant threat to combustible material near the chimney. Additionally, a chimney fire can move through a breech in an unlined chimney and spread throughout the home.
An easy solution is to have a chimney sweep add a metal chimney liner to a masonry chimney.
Chimney liners ensure that noxious smoke and hot gases exit to the outside of a house. Not all chimneys require this solution, but many would benefit from this addition.
The cost of this service can range from $1,500 to $6,000, depending on the product and the complexity of the installation. The best way to know if a chimney requires this service is to hire a chimney sweep that can provide a visual inspection and/or video scan of the chimney's internal workings.
According to the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), an educational chimney safety organization located in Indianapolis, Ind., installation of flue liners has been recommended since the early part of the century, but currently few state building codes actually mandate chimney liners for masonry chimneys. Additionally, the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) indicates that clay flue tiles within a chimney must be replaced if they are cracked, broken, or missing.
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