Expert: James Ball - 5/24/2009

Question
Hello James I have a little bit of a problem with my 100 year old fireplace. I bought a buck stove insert. What I notice before I was to put the stainless steel pipe into my chimney was that one of the clay liner is offset from the other I think it was made that way but my problem is that it offset to 5 inch so I can't fit the pipe all they way down to the insert it about 4 to 5 feet from the bottom up so it out of reach. it look like it not supporting anything on one side I was thinking of breaking that one side some how that would give me enough put the pipe through. Then the real question is how do you break it any ideas that you may have would be great. Thank you Mark

Answer
Hello Mark, 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 be able to help.
they should have a tile breaker to open up that off set.
This liner should be insulated too.
keep me posted
James