Chimney Care Company's Blog
Now is the Perfect Time to Reline Your Chimney!
What sort of shape is your chimney liner in? Within your chimney system, the chimney liner is responsible for the brunt of the work. It keeps your home safe from the heat and smoke that travels up the chimney. It also ensures that air draws effectively through your fireplace and chimney. A failure of the chimney flue can jeopardize the function of your fireplace and put your home at risk. So if your chimney liner isn’t doing its job properly, now is the perfect time to reline your chimney!
The Importance of Your Chimney Liner
If your chimney liner isn’t in great shape, your chimney simply won’t function. A chimney liner that isn’t functioning can make your fireplace unpleasant to use or even put your home in danger. According to the Chimney Safety Institute of America, your chimney liner serves three main purposes:
• Protecting the building structure from the heat of the fireplace. A chimney structure on its own can’t contain the heat that travels up the chimney from the fireplace. The chimney liner serves to contain the heat from the fireplace so the extreme temperatures that travel up your chimney can’t damage or ignite the surrounding building structure.
• Protecting the chimney structure from fire byproducts. The soot and creosote that result from a burning fireplace are highly corrosive. If allowed to come into contact with the chimney structures, these byproducts would corrode and degrade the chimney structure over time. In addition, the chimney liner acts as a layer of protection for the chimney structure.
• Creating a proper draft for your fireplace. The size and height of your chimney liner matters. The flue that the liner creates is what determines how well your fireplace will draw in air for combustion and send smoke up the chimney. If your chimney liner isn’t the right size for your fireplace, the fire will burn less efficiently, and smoke will also find its way back into your home.
Relining Your Chimney
If your chimney liner isn’t functioning properly, your chimney will need to be relined to keep your home safe or improve the function of your chimney. Common problems include developed cracks or holes due to age and improperly sized liners for your hearth appliance. There are two primary ways for relining chimneys:
• Stainless steel chimney liners. One of the fastest ways to reline a chimney is with a stainless steel chimney liner. To reline the chimney, insert and secure into place a stainless steel liner that’s the right size for your chimney.
• Cerfractory sealant. For masonry chimney liners, a specialized cerfractor cement can be poured down into the chimney then smoothed into place with a specialized plug. As it’s smoothed down, the cement reseals the chimney liner, filling in any cracks, gaps or holes that have degraded the function of the liner.
If your chimney needs to be relined, spring is the perfect time to do it, and Chimney Care Co. help! By relining your chimney now, you can take advantage of lighter chimney service schedules to schedule your chimney service at your convenience. You also know that your chimney will be ready to keep your home safe and your fireplace drafting properly next fall. Call to schedule your appointment today!
Getting Optimum Draft
Your Chimney’s Draft, And How It Can Be Compromised
As comprehensive chimney and fireplace service professionals, the techs at the Chimney Care Co. tend to talk about draft a lot — it’s pretty much the key to your chimney’s proper function, so maintaining draft is key to what we do, too.
The Chimney Safety Institute of America has a detailed breakdown of the science behind how your chimney works, but if you want the chimney draft CliffsNotes, here’s a simple breakdown.
Not only does optimum draft increase effectiveness and performance, it also minimizes risks.
Draft is, more or less, how air draws up your flue. And it occurs because of a difference in pressure between the hot air produced by your fire and the cooler air outside your flue. When heated air is getting produced by your fire, some degree of draft will happen, but what you really need is optimum draft — the proper level of upward pull, which happens when your chimney system is properly built, in top shape, under optimum burning conditions.
That probably sounds like a tall order, all those optimums. But that’s what we do at the Chimney Care Co.: We use the right methods, tools and expertise to get your chimney system set up for optimum draft.
What Can Stop Optimum Draft?
Ensuring optimum draft means getting rid of all the things that hinder draft. Wondering what those things are? Here are a few of the most common problems:
Blockages
This one’s kind of a given: If something is blocking off your flue, air can’t flow like it should. The most common flue blockages are usually an indication of another problem, like a missing chimney cap allowing animals to nest in the chimney, pieces of a damaged chimney liner falling into the flue, or excess amounts of creosote being present because of an overdue chimney sweeping appointment.
Improperly Sized Flue
Heating appliances are designed to vent through a specifically sized flue. A flue that’s too small leaves you with weak draft and smoking issues. A flue that’s too large generally draws too slowly leading to poor venting, increased levels of creosote and often liner and masonry damage from acidic condensate, too. The mismatch in sizes sometimes happens when a new appliance is installed to vent with an existing chimney, and the flue size isn’t taken into consideration. The most effective solution: having a new stainless steel flue liner installed to bring the flue to its proper size.
Your Appliance Isn’t Getting Enough Air
Fireplaces and stoves need combustion air to encourage draft and keep byproducts and smoke moving in the right direction. If you’re having issues with smoke coming into your living area and your home has energy-efficient windows and doors, those energy savers might be keeping your fire from getting enough air. Try cracking a window and see if it helps.
You’re Using The Wrong Fuel
If you have a wood-burning appliance, here’s one rule that has no exception: Burn seasoned or kiln-dried wood, always. Burning improperly dried wood leads to a fire that doesn’t burn hot enough, which means a weak draft and increased creosote. If you’re collecting and cutting your own wood, let it dry for six months to a year. (Christmas trees and trash: also a no-no as far as proper fireplace or stove use goes.)
If you’re experiencing draft issues, The Chimney Care Co. technicians can inspect your system, find the culprit and offer solutions. If you’d like to schedule an appointment, or ask any questions, just give us a call!