Expert: Bart Ogden - 10/24/2008

Question
I read a question on this page that was very similar to my question (I have pasted it below as a reference).  My question differs only in that my chimney, which runs through the livingroom against one of the walls, acts as the chimney for our gas boiler, which works well and feeds heat to our radiators.  I want to continue using the boiler, but would like to install a wood fireplace in the living room.  Can I tap into the existing chimney and use it for the wood fireplace as well?  If not, how else can I put a wood fireplace in the living room?  Would I need to run a parallel chimney?

Thanks for your help,
Chris
original question:
You are here:  Experts > Industry > Construction Industry > Chimney & Fireplaces > Tapping into an existing chimney


Topic: Chimney & Fireplaces

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Expert: Bart Ogden
Date: 8/19/2008
Subject: Tapping into an existing chimney

Question
Please excuse the length of this question - I believe a good answer requires as much info as possible. I bought and renovated a 150-year-old house two years ago. This house has a combination wood/oil furnace in the basement venting into a stainless-steel lined brick chimney that passes through the center of the house. I am not comfortable with the idea of having a wood fire burning unattended in the basement, and oil is simply too expensive to use ($6/gallon here in eastern Canada). On top of this I am pretty sure the old furnace has a hole in the heat exchanger, as the house gets smokey when there's a fire in the box but the circulation fan is not operating (when the circulation fan is going there is no smoke - my theory is that the circulation fan pressurizes the outside of the heat exchanger, preventing smoke from escaping, but when the fan is not going the heat exchanger itself is pressurized, allowing smoke to escape).

Anyway, I would like to install a wood stove in the living room as primary heat and use electric as secondary (during the renovations I installed a 200-amp service and installed 220-volt electric baseboard heaters in all rooms). I realize that only one appliance should be connected to a chimney, so the furnace in the basement would be disconnected entirely. While replacing the plaster walls in the living room with drywall I discovered that there was an existing opening in the chimney from where a wood stove was in the living room years ago. This opening had a block-off plate and was plastered over years ago. So-far so good, but my concern is the stainless steel liner in the brick chimney. If I cut a hole in the drywall and pull that cover off, I fear I may find that the liner was installed after the wood stove was removed, and there won't be an access hole in it.

This leads me to my question: If there is no hole in the stainless liner, is it much of a job to make one and add a "t" into it to connect the wood stove?  

Answer
H Chris,

You can't use the existing chimney which is currently in use to vent the boiler.

A woodburning fireplace has to have its own flue system.  You would need to install a separate flue system for the fireplace.

Thanks for using AllExperts.Com and good luck with your project.

Sincerely,
A . Bart Ogden, President
Home Safe Hearth & Chimney, Inc.
Wichita, KS
Voice  316-265-9828
Fax  316-265-9890
www.HomeSafeKS.com

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