Expert: James Ball - 1/15/2009

Question
What are the brown spots at chimney joints? Two joints have stains ,one has small spot and the other has it on two sides. What causes this? Chimney is only 4 months old?! Should i stop using the wood burner??

Answer
Hello Lisa, it is hard to tell with out seeing these stains and where on the chimney they are. I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have.
James