A windstorm blew some large tree branches onto the roof of a house I own and damaged the metal cap of the chimney. Chimney vents a water heater, no fireplace. Furnace is vented on the side of the house.
Had a reputable company come out and they said it was about $200 to replace the cap, including labor. Fine. I’m not climbing up on that very sloped roof.
But once up there the guy says the upper part of the chimney liner was damaged. It tore about 10 inches off the top of the liner when the cap got tore off. Says I need a completely new liner. With cap and labor looking at $1000!:eek:
Do I really need a completely new liner installed just because 10 lousy inches got tore off the top? Are those 10 inches really going to matter? Isn’t there a cheaper way to just patch those 10 inches of liner pipe and then cap it? Looking down the chimney (he took photos) beyond the top 10 inches there was no other damage to the liner.
Is this guy selling me a bill of goods or do I really need to replace the entire liner?
My guess is that anyone is going to want to replace the whole thing, just from a liability viewpoint. You don’t want to be the chimney guy that killed folks with carbon monoxide from a damaged liner.
That it is just your water heater (I assume the furnace used to vent there until replaced with a high efficiency one) that your actual risk is quite low, but I doubt any semi-reputable chimney person is going to take it.
And not that a home inspector will necessarily spot it, but I imagine it would be disqualifying on trying to sell the place down the line.
To elaborate on my post, I have found that the cost of any repair which is not easy to do yourself because of location or required skill goes down in direct proportion to number of quotes you get. For anything in the 1000 and over range, I now get 5 as a minimum. And it pays off. I have no idea if replacing the liner is necessary. More quotes would help answer that. But even if it is, odds are good you will find a qualified person quoting it for hundreds less.
I’m not sure what he means by a “completely new liner”. You mean disassemble the chimney and replace the whole damn thing? He isn’t going to do that for $1000. Maybe he means replace the top piece which is 2 feet long and would require removing a few courses of brick and replacing them.
As Folacin mentioned, that liner was for when you had a large furnace hooked to it, maybe even a coal burner if the house is old enough. All a water heater needs is a 3" metal, double wall flue.
Me, I would trim the existing liner with a diamond cut off blade and put a new cap on.
Except every single chimney company in this area charges at least $145 to even show up. There is no such thing as a free estimate for chimneys in this area.
The liner goes all the way down the chimney down to the basement. At least 20 feet. Which is why I question the need for all that due to just the first 10 inches. This house was built in 1961 so I don’t but it ever had coal.
Not quite the same situation, but a good chimney story never-the-less:
If you have a new masonry chimney built remember to pay the guy. The story goes like this, a man contracted a mason to build a new chimney for him The man had a reputation for not paying his bills. When the mason was done he asked for payment but the man asked if he could pay him after 30 days. The mason said “Sure you can, but don’t use that fireplace until you pay me”. The man agreed. After the mason left he stuck his head in the fireplace, looked up and saw daylight, so he lit up a fire. Instantly smoke came billowing out into the room, he had to douse the fire with water to stop it. He called up the mason and began yelling that the chimney must be blocked and it was no good. The mason said he’d fix it immediately, if he got paid. The man agreed. The mason came out, took the money, got out his ladder, and then climbed up to the top of the chimney with a single brick in his hand. Then he dropped the brick down the chimney breaking the pane of glass he had mortared across the opening.
**Remove damaged aluminum chimney liner ( haul away and
dispose of all debris) Install an Aluminum chimney liner kit to
vent flue gases from Orphaned water heater to outside
atmosphere ( includes a Raincap and TopPlate )
$995.00 **
They included pictures down the chimney showing the liner going all the way down to the basement. 20 feet was only an estimate on my part but it’s got to be close.
Per the pics the only part damaged on the liner I could see was the very top part, about 10 inches.
It takes a bit to get the parts in so I have time. It just seems like overkill for 10 inches.
Apparently, your existing aluminium liner is damaged and the contractor recommends a new one. I have never seen a chimney liner that is repairable because when installed, it comes as a continuous seamless unit to prevent hot gas from escaping from within the chimney. I am unaware of any safe repair method. You may wish to contact your homeowner’s insurer but check your windstorm deductible as they tend to be substantial in many areas.
As an aside, $995 doesn’t sound out of line for 20’ of liner.
For what they’re doing the price is fine, I’m just wondering if they actually need to do it. I don’t understand why a small section of liner can’t just be grafted on at the top. But admittedly this isn’t my area of expertise.
It’s quite possible a contractor may not want to assume potential liability from a future breakdown of any attempted repair. Further, city code may prohibit this method of repair and either a permit would not be granted or it may not pass final inspection. Repairing a aluminium liner can represent a hazard.
So after the original estimate I was told it could take 4-6 weeks for them to get the liner ordered and schedule my job. I finally got a call last week and got the job scheduled for Sunday.
3 gentleman arrived with full equipment including a new chimney liner that appeared to be at least 18 feet if not longer.
They set up their ladders and equipment and went up on the roof. About 10 minutes later the foreman knocked on my door. He said “you know, you don’t need this full job. There was enough slack in your current liner that we were able to pull it up a foot to the top and place a new cap on.” Then he showed me some photographs that he took. “Your liner is in good shape all the way down. It doesn’t need to be replaced”
But then he said that if this happens again (tree branch incident) I would need a new liner as there wouldn’t be any more room to pull up the current one.
When I questioned as to why the first guy who came in October couldn’t have done this in the first place they couldn’t give an answer. But one of the guys did say “he didn’t need to sell you all this. He should have checked the slack in your current liner. There isn’t always slack but sometimes there is”. They packed up all their gear and left. The old liner was secured to the top with a new cap. Total cost: $245. I can live with that.
Great outcome!
Kind of like the AC guy that came out to my house to fix my central AC compressor and determined that I needed a $500 circuit board. Came back a few days later with the part and found a loose wire. Tightened the wire and told me it was covered by the initial inspection cost. If he had wanted to he could have replaced the board and no one except himself would have ever known. I still call him 15 years later whenever I need ventilation work done.