Chimney Liner Installation Process

Your chimneys liner is the most important vital component to the operation of your fireplace. The chimney liner starts above three feet above your firebox. The standard firebox is 36x 30. The standard flue is 13x13. Between the firebox and liner is an area called the smoke chamber. The liner starts between the smoke chamber and the firebox. The smoke chamber narrows starting at 36 wide from the firebox down to 13x13 where the liner starts. The chimney liner size is directly correlated to the firebox size. The larger the firebox the larger the liner needs to be.

The chimney liner is what allows your chimney to properly vent gases from combustion for wood, gas, pellet, and oil appliances. A damaged flue can either mean a cracked tiles, missing mortar between the tiles, or sometimes there are tiles missing entirely depending on the age of the home. Damaged tiles can happen for a variety of different reasons such as an earth quake, chimney fire, or water penetration causing damage to the flue. When there is damage to your chimney flue some of the gases will go up the chimney and the other gases will enter the cracks or gaps. This allows for a build up behind the tile on the outside of the tile where it can not be accessed to clean. As  this builds up can catch on fire spreading to the home. You want to address a damaged flue before there is damage to your home. The proper way to do this is a stainless steel chimney liner.

Below is step by step pictures of the chimney lining process for a fireplace, videos of chimney liner installation, pictures of how flue tiles are propely set during constructions, and pictures of chimneys being taken apart showing what the damage to the flue cause.  Put diagram showing chimney firebox, smoke chamber and liner

Liner Installation Process:

• Fireplace will be prepped for new liner. If the existing flue tiles are too small to fit new they will be removed. If new liner will fit inside of existing it will be installed inside of the existing lining. Before the existing lining is removed we will seal off the firebox entirely to prevent any dust from entering the home during the removal process. The tiles are removed using a drill, 5 feet metal rods, and a breaker block at the end to break the tiles. As we get further and further down the chimney more 5 foot rods will be added the reach the bottom.  Depending on the sizing needed and your current lining this may be required.

• Liner will be dropped

• Liner will be stuffed using fireproof insulation.

• Liner will be parged over using high temperature mortar.

• Insulation will be mixed with water and poured down the chimney. The insulation will fill all the the space between the new liner and the chimney itself. As we pour the insulation we vibrate the liner so it all settles to the bottom. The insulation is granular in composition similar to sand so it fills every single void.