Expert: James Ball - 1/1/2011

Question
I have a custom built chimney (5 yrs old) for my vermont castings wood stove insert. The stove has a black elbow pipe that goes directly into a clay liner and up the chimney. After a year I noticed some water coming in and had the mason come back to waterproof, but if the stove is not running cold air comes right into the room. I had a chimney sweep company come out to sweep and inspect. He would not sweep it as is did not need it. Very clean after five years of burning, but he did say the mason did a poor job on the chimney and shut me down from burning with his license. He said there are some gaps (about 1/4") that is letting hot air up into the walls along with some other spots. He wants to charge me $600 to seal the inside with a refractery mortar and another $2400 to run a stainless steel liner plus $287 for cap. This entire job was signed off by the inspector just five years ago and didn't require a liner. I am a handy person, so is sealing a firebox with this refractory mortar a big deal? This pricing seams very high to me.

Answer
Hello EJ, a wood stove needs to be sized properly and burned correctly, and even if the chimney was custom built  does not mean it was done correctly (even if inspected by local building department) I believe all stoves should  be run in an insulated SS liner, as far as what needs to be done, 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 or at the very least get you a second price.
Hope this helps
James