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Chimney repair: who do I believe? WPB 04-17-2008
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Posted by WPB on April 17, 2008, 8:59 am
Hello, all: I'd be grateful if someone could give me some advice on two
points.

1. Last autumn I had a chimney cleaner come over and he told me that I
needed a steel liner in my chimney (to the tune of $2,500). My house is
older--about 65 years old. He told me that I was taking a real risk.
Other people have told me that a chimney liner is completely unnecessary
and a waste of money. Opinions?

2. The bricks in the "floor" of my chimney are all loose. That's bad.
But one guy quoted me $175 to repair them (get them all locked into place
and safe) and another guy quoted me $1,400 to $4,000. Quite the
difference! Who should I believe?

Many thanks!

David in Toronto

Posted by dpb on April 17, 2008, 9:08 am
WPB wrote:
> Hello, all: I'd be grateful if someone could give me some advice on two
> points.
>
> 1. Last autumn I had a chimney cleaner come over and he told me that I
> needed a steel liner in my chimney (to the tune of $2,500). My house is
> older--about 65 years old. He told me that I was taking a real risk.
> Other people have told me that a chimney liner is completely unnecessary
> and a waste of money. Opinions?

I'm just another "other people" -- why would you put any credence in my
response?

The problem is at least twofold here -- first, who are these "other
people" who disagree w/ the cleaner and what are their credentials and
basis for their opinion? Second, a cleaner isn't necessarily anything
more than the name--doesn't mean they're qualified for other work or
even necessarily that his judgment on the condition is correct, either.

Then, from here I can't see your chimney to judge its condition, nor
will any other respondent. Only you or somebody you hire can actually
look at it and determine whether it does have leaking joints or other
conditions that are actually dangerous.

> 2. The bricks in the "floor" of my chimney are all loose. That's bad.
> But one guy quoted me $175 to repair them (get them all locked into place
> and safe) and another guy quoted me $1,400 to $4,000. Quite the
> difference! Who should I believe?

Why not ask them what they're going to do and why would cost so much (or
little)? Obviously then one guy is simply going to regrout in
place--which may be perfectly adequate if that's all that's wrong. One
would presume (but it's only a presumption since have no information
other than a price) that the other guy is going to take the floor up and
re-lay it and perhaps even replace some/many brick. Whether that is
necessary is impossible to judge from here.

Of course, the cleaner and the one fellow on the floor may just be
trying to take advantage of a situation, too, but there's no way to tell
for sure here.

--



Posted by WPB on April 17, 2008, 4:33 pm
> I'm just another "other people" -- why would you put any credence in
> my response?

Well, isn't that the point of newsgroups? Not necessarily to take to heart
every comment everyone leaves, but rather just to see what people have to
say, what their opinions are, suggestions and advice.

In any event, I realize that it's all but impossible to give good advice
without actually seeing the situation. I just thought someone might be
able to say "I had the bottom of my chimney repaired/stabilized and you can
expect to spend around $1,000. Not $175 and not $4,000."

That's all.

David

Posted by ransley on April 17, 2008, 9:50 am
> Hello, all: I'd be grateful if someone could give me some advice on two
> points.
>
> 1. =A0Last autumn I had a chimney cleaner come over and he told me that I
> needed a steel liner in my chimney (to the tune of $2,500). =A0My house is=

> older--about 65 years old. =A0He told me that I was taking a real risk. =
=A0
> Other people have told me that a chimney liner is completely unnecessary
> and a waste of money. =A0Opinions?
>
> 2. =A0The bricks in the "floor" of my chimney are all loose. =A0That's bad=
. =A0
> But one guy quoted me $175 to repair them (get them all locked into place
> and safe) and another guy quoted me $1,400 to $4,000. =A0Quite the
> difference! =A0Who should I believe?
>
> Many thanks!
>
> David in Toronto

Someone has to look inside the chimney to see what is going on and if
a liner is needed. If loose you mean you can move them then its bad.
175 , if he removes them , cleans and remortars them then ok, if he is
just pushing in a 1/4" of mortar than no. Not knowing how many and how
bad who can say. The 175 is probably a handyman doing it in a day he
figures, but he may not understand how bad it really is. 1400-4000 may
be the other extreme. You need more bids and to learn what is really
going on. Get a guy to look in the chimney and photograph the issues,
get bids.

Posted by pipedown on April 17, 2008, 3:50 pm

> Hello, all: I'd be grateful if someone could give me some advice on two
> points.
>
> 1. Last autumn I had a chimney cleaner come over and he told me that I
> needed a steel liner in my chimney (to the tune of $2,500). My house is
> older--about 65 years old. He told me that I was taking a real risk.
> Other people have told me that a chimney liner is completely unnecessary
> and a waste of money. Opinions?
>
> 2. The bricks in the "floor" of my chimney are all loose. That's bad.
> But one guy quoted me $175 to repair them (get them all locked into place
> and safe) and another guy quoted me $1,400 to $4,000. Quite the
> difference! Who should I believe?
>
> Many thanks!
>
> David in Toronto

>Someone has to look inside the chimney to see what is going on and if
>a liner is needed. If loose you mean you can move them then its bad.
>175 , if he removes them , cleans and remortars them then ok, if he is
>just pushing in a 1/4" of mortar than no. Not knowing how many and how
>bad who can say. The 175 is probably a handyman doing it in a day he
>figures, but he may not understand how bad it really is. 1400-4000 may
>be the other extreme. You need more bids and to learn what is really
>going on. Get a guy to look in the chimney and photograph the issues,
>get bids.

Unfortunately around here you need to pay at least $75 for an inspection (or
$125 for a clean and inspect) before a mason will quote any required
repairs. Kind of quells the urge to get quotes from more than a few. But
like the other poster said, a chimny sweep may not be qualified to evaluate
borderline repairs, need to quote from the company that will be doing the
repairs.

Among other things, if the mortar inside the chimny is as bad as the outside
(implied by the need to repair some loose bricks) then the liner is
advisable, cracked bricks may or may not be an issue. A cheaper cosmetic
fix may be suitable for a few years but maybe you want a fix to last
decades. If you can see smoke leaking from any part of the chimny, a liner
is required.

Your city may have something to say as well, they may have limits to how
much repointing is allowed before rebuilding parts are necessary.







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