Quote:
Originally Posted by MOhillbilly
the problem with running a new flue down my old chimney is the i exhaust my gas heater and water heater out the same chimney.
what about heat exchangers? my house is 1200 sq ft. and was built in 27'. i have good storm windows but its still fairly drafty.
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How hard would it be for you to fix the crack with fresh mortar? Can you get to it from the attic? Mortar really isn't hard to mix and work with. I bought a 60# bag this spring when I did my roof and had to flash the chimney - it was something like $4 for the bag - if you don't want to spend the $ though, I still have about 55# of it left over, you can have it if you want to come out and get it.
The chimney in the house we were in was so bad that the bricks had actually come apart and fallen off the house above the roof line. Inside most of the mortor was gone and bricks in the attic were loose. It was well beyond repair thus the reason why I put in the pipe.
If the crack can't be fixed, how dificult it would be to run the water heater and furnace through new pipes going through the roof? If they are in closets, you could run the pipe and no one would see it. The gas multi-wall chimney pipe isn't to exepnsive and with furnace and water heater gasses doesn't get hot enough to pose a threat to building materials on the way up and out. That way, the existing chimney would be soley for the fireplace and the pipe liner would still work.
The other option would be to put a new chimney through the roof that is rated for a wood stove (triple wall), though these are a bit more expensive - but would probably still pay for itself in the first winter or two over a gas furnace.
With 1,200 sq ft to heat, a stove like I put up can make you appreciate the drafts. In our old house, we had a thermometer in the kitchen where the stove was. There were times that the thermometer would read 75-80 degrees at eye level, 85-90 degrees at the ceiling, and 60-65 degrees at the floor.
The house we are in now has a fireplace with an air chamber that the furnace draws from. I can heat my entire house by funning the fan only on my furnace and pull air from around the fireplace through the ductwork. Its hard on wood and easy to get carried away with (nieghbors think we've lost it when it's 15 degrees out and we have the doors open) but we cut our gas bills by about 2/3 over the first winter we were in the house.