Funny you should mention dishonesty berlin, you'll like this....Sent these and a bunch of other pics to company 1, he claims the chimney is no good and he can install a new insulated metal one for $2000 approx....same pics to company 2, chimney is fine but he has a stove to sell me (2 small weldable cracks).Both claim there obviously was a chimney fire. Next day at the dump a guy is throwing out his chimney, an obviously bad one I said to him, he said ya but the inspector told him his 1 year old one is no good, not this one..he bought a new pellet stove...no WETT inspection needed. I had to get a "WETT inspection" for insurance purposes. Seeing as there is no such thing as a "WETT Certified Appliance" or any specs or guidelines for the inspection... not hard to figure out. Which led me here with a few pics and questions. I do believe the chimney terracotta liner is no good, even if I fix that one crack there may be others, so I wanted to put a liner which I'm told will be hard seeing as the existing liner is crooked, it will get hung up. A 3rd inspector agrees the chimney is no good(more pics here)because of the cracks o n the outside, 1 claiming it is not structurally sound?. What I'd like to do is use this one if its safe, to bad for me because Insurance demands WETT which I can't attain. So what I'd then like to do is get a metal liner installed, but I'm not sure of that? So what I'd then like to do is rip this 1 out and put my own Insulated metal, saving on labor would make this worth it(around the same as a metal liner). Would take forever to make my investment back in heat savings as I'm hardly home...problem is, I'm afraid they will reject that as well unless I pay them to do it. Clearances and the shields shouldn't be a problem. I will weld the stove whether it's needed or not.I was told the actual pipe use through the wall may be the wrong type, And i"m wondering abut the exit point method..Cinder brick surrounding mortar with the pipe slid through...how bout clearances here, there are studs etc. upto the brick Thanks

Wow! That's beautiful, Squirrlley! Love the colors...and the pattern! I've been collecting mosaic table top pictures, too. Hope to get to making a small table soon. Kelly: Those 27 years will FLY by!!! Especially during the summers! :) I retired after 23 years teaching... but decided to go back. Am working on a 2nd retirement. Hmmmm... but now that I'm REALLY having fun with the mosaics.. might want to stop earlier. OH... forgot about the $$$ involved. Oh well!!! :) Meanwhile... went to my favorite little TS yesterday... bought a couple of plates to crack... but on the way out saw an OLD skateboard. It was a $1.00. So... I grabbed it up, paid, and put it with the TBM stuff. My daughter's almost step-son is an avid skate boarder so I'm planning to mosaic it for him for Christmas. More added to the list! Katie

Being a contractor requires insurance for general liability as well as specific performance. In this case, a qualified chimney sweep would carry insurance to cover the possible damage that might occur during the inspection and repar procedure. As well as a number of other possible mistakes. The operative word is qualified, and I will state again that a visual inspection is only accurate for about two feet on a typical flue. The industry standard is video inspection and I am not aware of any insurance companies that will cover chimney inspection liability without video evidence of the inspection. It is virtually impossible to see the difference between a crack and a spider web coated with soot from 4 feet away. This may sound crazy, but I have seen it demonstrated many times with the proper equipment. The original poster is considering an extreme repair procedure of busting out the existing liner that I believe is rarely called for now that new methods have been developed to address this situation. There are a lot of alternative solutions on the market. I simply suggest they get another inspection and make sure the new guy is qualified, has liability insurance and shows them the video of the inspection. As far as the damper goes, it depends on the type of repair, if a SS liner is installed, the gap between the new and old liner has to be sealed at the throat area. How this is accomplished depends on how much space is available to work in there. One of the newer methods of repair allows for a new liner to be poured into the flue and a cone is pulled up through the quick setting refractory material. This often allows the existing flue and damper to be left in place and provides for a smooth, well functioning flue that is very well insulated. Sorry for the long post, I just want you to realize there are probably better options out there than the "obliterator" and you really should have a video inspection so you know what is going on the entire length of the chimney.

Yes. The route may or may not add extra pressure loss, or at least the pressure loss can be compensated by a larger duct. In my view, for such a route an external (outside wall) blower might be better than one mounted in the hood for two reasons: First, it may have to be more "powerful" and hence more noisy and/or larger. (You will have at least two 90-degre bends of rectangular duct plus the 90-degree flow rotation inside the hood. There could of necessity be additional bends in the basement.) Second, the offset of the blower by the duct length will attenuate some of the blower noise -- a lot of the noise if you put a Fantech* silencer (muffler) in the duct path in the basement (if there is room -- diameter for an eight-inch unit is 12.5 inches -- see link). Ideally for this configuration you would use a hood with a rear exit adapted to an inter-wall cavity rectangular duct. (MA could probably cut this to fit your wall stud layout relative to the hood alignment.) This rectangular duct would transition to circular in the basement. For the hood aperture in play and duct losses, I'd strive to fit an 8-inch duct in the basement, with whatever rectangular duct will fit in the wall cavity and provide the most sectional area. 14 inches x 3.5 inches would be a close area match to the 8-inch round. There are also benefits to hood design that result from not having to fit a blower into it. To avoid surprises in joist revision, you will want to determine whether the subfloor under the selected wall cavity is free to cut into without having to modify the floor joist layout. kas *http://www.fantech.net/LD10Silencer10Dia-Duct_enus-411286.aspx