Chimney flue repair for Palomar homes

The kinds of lining the code accepts

For ordinary residential appliances, Section R1003.11.1 of the Florida residential code lists four acceptable flue lining systems. Any repair or replacement we propose has to leave your flue inside one of them.

When a proposed fix does not clearly land in one of these categories, we say so and explain what that means for using the fireplace.

• Clay flue lining complying with ASTM C315
• Listed and labeled chimney lining systems complying with UL 1777
• Factory-built chimneys, or chimney units, carrying a listing for use inside a masonry chimney
• Other approved materials that hold up against flue gases and condensate to 1,800 degrees F without corroding, eroding, softening or cracking

Repairing joints near the top of the flue

Joints close to the top of the chimney can often be reached directly. Old material is cleared out and the joint is packed with a suitable refractory mortar or a listed repair product.

Reach is the limit. A joint a few feet down is workable. One halfway down a tall chimney usually is not, without a system designed for working at a distance. We tell you which joints can be repaired directly and what the options are for the rest. Joints repaired from the top are cleaned out first, so the new material bonds to sound tile rather than to crumbling mortar.

The smoke chamber is its own repair

Between the damper and the first flue tile sits the smoke chamber, a sloped masonry space that funnels smoke into the flue. Its walls crack and erode too, and the damage can look similar to flue damage from below.

Smoke chamber repair is a separate service with its own methods. When we find damage there, we name it and price it separately, so the flue repair covers the flue and not the chamber beneath it. From the fireplace the two are hard to tell apart, since debris from both lands on the same shelf. We look at the chamber walls and the first flue tile separately and say where the damage sits.

Honest advice on the size of the job

It is tempting to promise that a small repair will fix everything, or to push relining when a small repair would do. Neither helps you.

We tell you what we found, what we recommend and why, with the alternatives in writing. You decide with the facts in front of you and no pressure. A relining job sold where a top-tile repair would do costs you money for nothing. A patch sold where the lining has failed leaves you with a flue that still is not sound. Both are avoidable when the findings drive the recommendation.