Home filled with flies--are they getting in chimney?
dreambuilder
10 years ago
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twosit
10 years agoRelated Discussions
closing up free-standing fireplace chimney opening
Comments (1)I am assuming you have a chimmney on the outside of your house and a hole from the chimmney through the basement wall where the flue from the freestanding stove/fireplace connected to it. first thing you would need to do is plug the hole in the wall. Next thing you need to do is cap the chimmney on the outside of the house. To do that get a piece of gavanized sheet metal and use that to cover the top of the chimney. Fasten it down with Tapcon anchor screws and put roofing sealant over the fastners. plugging the hole in the wall will probably take a sheet metal plug or a concrete plug....See MoreSending gas boiler steam up chimney
Comments (9)It seems like you need a condenser of some sort outside with the outlet pointed down so the water drools out on the ground. You can see the problem with that, though. You will have a big slab of ice on the ground in no time. Why is this not a problem with all direct-vent high efficiency furnaces and boilers? The dew point is high and the temp of the exhaust is low. Condensation happens immediately when the humid exhaust hits the cold, damp outside air. One approach that could fix this is to mix outside air with the exhaust very quickly. Run the exhaust into a a chamber with a second inlet and an outlet to handle the combined flow. Tie a blower to the furnace that blows in 10x the amount of outside air compared to the boiler exhaust. You get turbulent flow. With any kind of luck, you will have built a snow machine. The fact remains that lots of people have high efficiency heaters in cold climates and they don't have this kind of Rube Goldberg arrangement or ice palaces outside of their homes do they?...See Moreold brick chimney with decorative anchor bolt plates?
Comments (4)I've seen star bolts at flea markets and antique stores. A good architectural antique store or salvage place would have them (in Philly there's a place called Restore). I spent last weekend removing plaster from a chimney, cleaning / scraping bricks with a wire brush, and then spraying them with a masonry sealer (Manowar makes a good one, so does Behr, in both Wet-look and low-lustre). 1 or 2 coats will give them a coating so they aren't crumbling and dusty. I would mix some mortar and fill the hole with old bricks. If this chimney is a chase for gases from your heater, it is important that the hole is filled . sealed and not just covered up with something decorative. -cheers...See MoreHomes Where Smokers Live - How Did You Get Rid of Odor?
Comments (38)cmarlin - if we keep them, I'll clean them, but no paint, I think they look pretty rich and even though old, I actually like them. I think I'll probably put in something like Silestone in a mocha color and it would look great. What will determine whether we keep them is if I can find a good match that will appropriately fit. kelpermaid, I think they painted in the house recently, though I'm not sure - going to try and find out. I know they've lived there for 6 years, so if they are the only people who smoked there in the last 25 years since it was built, at least 19yrs of it had no smokers - but not sure how bad the last 6 years have been. creekside - now you've TOTALLY confused me! In some cases, homes need to dry to the interior. Kilz will prevent that. So will some other products. A spot of Kilz here and there won't hurt anything. Rolling it on all the interior walls may promote mold growth. So, if you are going to use Kilz after cleaning with TSP or something like it, you can't paint everything?? I'm sure I'm not understanding something here - I'll try to read the info on the link you sent - maybe call the co. next week. Carol_from_NY -thanks, I think my cleaning list is growing by leaps and bounds. The way I'm going, I may have to put my mother on the top of the car and tell her to hold on to the luggage rack for the trip up I'm going to have so many supplies to take! Thanks for mentioning the steamer, I have one and wouldn't have remember to think about taking it. I've never heard about putting gum in for smells, that's a new one. I'll try ANYTHING to get the house to normal. Thanks for all you suggested. Well, at this time we are in limbo. Inspections turned up a few problems, two problems that could be major, one that definitely is and has to do with a foundation failure. I am trying to get the owners to agree to fix what's on the repair list I sent them - which isn't everything that needs to be repaired, I took on the cheaper and more easily aspects of it. Will know more next week whether the deal goes through or falls apart. Wish me luck!! Thanks again to all - everyone has been extremely helpful, and it's all appreciated! Oh, one more thing - my Mom was there during the inspection and told me they had a machine running to take the stink out and she thought it smelled better in there - was probably an ozone machine. My nose will decide (if we close on it, that is) THANKS!!!!...See Moredreambuilder
10 years agoakamainegrower
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