Expert: James Ball - 4/29/2009

Question
I have a Marco B36CF Fireplace, recently had a chimney fire... and got to meet my local fire dept. It all stayed contained. I had it inspected and my inspector pointed out half way up the chimney, at one of the joints, it was flared out a little (an inch or so). He felt it was unsafe. Upon hearing it was a UL listed FP, I would need to replace the entire unit... chimney, fireplace and crown. Needless to say I was floored by this. I thought I 'maybe' would have to replace the chimney (double insulated steel pipe), not the entire unit. Is this true?

Answer
Hello Christian, 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 they should do a full Level two (nfpa 211) inspection this includes a video scan to be sure the pipe is intact, he might even have to scan the chase the chimney is in. After that you can make a plan of replace or not use this unit.
as far as replace just the pipe or every thing, you will have to find out who's unit this is (owners manual?) and if you can get this pipe, is so then you might  be able to just replace all of the the pipe.
keep me posted
James