Chimney Relining

The Importance of Chimney Liners 

Chimneys provide a passageway for smoke and fumes to exit your home. Chimney liners provide an extra layer of protection between the inside of the chimney and the framing of your home. Masonry chimneys are now most commonly built with clay tile flue liners. The most common types of liners when it comes to your home include fireplace liners and furnace flue liners. Numerous events can leave the chimney needing a new liner to offer maximum safety and protection.

Hidden Chimney Dangers

Sometimes a chimney can look completely normal on the outside but there are hidden dangers inside.

Chimney Fires

In the old days, folks used to think that purposely igniting a chimney fire was the best way to clean out the chimney. This was a dangerous practice that led to untold house fires. Unlike fireplaces, clay tile liners are not designed to be exposed to high temperatures and when a chimney fire occurs, clay tile liners are almost always damaged during the fire.

As shown in the photo at left, a chimney fire rarely cleans the chimney out, it just makes the remaining creosote deposits more flammable. Looking carefully, you can see missing chunks of clay tile (top left) and vertical cracks. This flue tile liner actually did its job; it contained the fire within the chimney and the home was saved. However, the chimney must now be repaired.

Continued use of a chimney following a fire exposes your home to incrementally greater damage. The cracked tiles expand when the chimney is warmed while in use. Flammable creosote continues to build up within these cracks, now adjacent to the framing of your home. A second chimney fire is more likely as the ignition temperature of the remaining creosote has been lowered, and the next chimney fire is now more likely to cause structural damage to your home and jeopardize the safety of your family.

Spalling

Spalling occurs when chips of clay tile or brick exfoliate, break off and crumble due to moisture deterioration. When this happens to the inside of the chimney, these little bits of material not only reduce the thickness (and protective ability) of your chimney liner, the pieces drop down and settle somewhere, often causing a blockage. Flue gases are corrosive and deteriorate the useful life of a chimney by accelerating deterioration. Spalling damage can occur to both the inside and the outside of a chimney.

Spalling is particularly worrisome with chimneys venting gas or oil, such as water heaters and furnaces. These appliances vent through a hole in the wall, called the thimble, and spalled material can accumulate to block this passageway. This leads to a chimney that doesn't vent properly and can allow carbon monoxide, soot and deadly fumes to back up into the living space.

Spalling is an incremental problem; the longer this condition exists, the more rapidly the deterioration will accelerate. A new chimney liner, especially a stainless steel liner, will solve spalling problems related to the appliance venting.

Other Chimney Problems

The need for chimney relining may be caused by other reasons as well. Improper construction, such as poorly laid tiles, can cause performance and maintenance problems. Clay tile liners should be set squarely one upon the other and properly mortared, but poor construction can leave a brand new chimney in poor condition. Settling, storms, wind damage, soil erosion, lightening strikes, poor maintenance, creosote and soot penetration and numerous other occurrences can create conditions that will dictate a new liner.

Chimney Lining: How We Line Chimneys

As demonstrated, clay tile liners are the building industry standard and do meet building codes, however, clay tile is not the best material for lining a chimney.

We line chimneys using stainless steel chimney liners. This is a corrugated flexible pipe that is specially designed to withstand temperatures of 2100 degrees - a temperature at which clay tile will disintegrate. Stainless steel liners are impervious to rain and water damage. They are not porous so they cannot absorb creosote or soot, and they are easier to clean and maintain. Their flexible design allows them to be routed around chimney offsets, and even to be ovalized for chimneys with a challenging design. A properly installed chimney liner will increase draft because the smooth metal and circular design allows smoke and fumes to rise faster and exit your home quicker. A properly sized chimney liner will offer superior chimney performance, stay cleaner, help your appliance burn more efficiently to save energy dollars while offering maximum protection against dangerous fumes and against fire and water damage.

The appliance being vented and the configuration of your chimney help determine which alloy of stainless steel is appropriate for your needs and for best performance. We have a large selection of lining materials available in all styles and sizes.

An economical alternative to stainless steel liners is the HeatShield® chimney liner repair system. Learn more about HeatShield® technology and see if it's an option for you.

Whether your home is older and built before clay tile liners were required, the liner has been damaged, or there are other performance problems, a chimney liner is your best protection to maintain a barrier between the smoke and fumes in your chimney and the structure of your home.