Berlin, We have 2-3 holes in the boiler that are above the water line (verified by our HVAC guy). Steam is leaking up the chimney and repairing the boiler (which is oversized and inefficient) would be almost as much as replacing it. This boiler is only 4 years old but was installed incorrectly and had a leaky pipe for quite awhile before we purchased the house. Both of these factors could have led to the early demise of the boiler. Steam itself is not corrosive, but the flue gasses condense because too much heat is extracted from them before they can exit the chimney. The resulting condensate has chemicals in it from combustion making it corrosive. I am quite positive from lots of consultation that the boiler is almost dead and the chimney needs to be lined. The hitch is that we thought lining the chimney would cost about $1000 but the couple of estimates we've gotten have been over $4000! This seems outrageous!!

yes it's a scam. ask any honest sweep or mason and they will tell you that it's common to have bits of mortar missing between tiles when they're placed new during the build. nothing but a bunch of bs. in a fireplace that's used that infrequently and cleaned yearly it's not only unlikely to have a chimney fire, but impossible. the small gaps of missing mortar wouldn't make much difference anyway, since during a chimney fire, tile liners crack and fall apart thus causing much bigger gaps than the ones your worried about. utter nonsense that's very common from far too many sweeps/chimney & fireplace shops; burn your fireplace and enjoy it, don't let these fools have your money.

ribidibi - My experience is that of a company trying to rip us off... My wife and I rebuilt the upper (from roof up) outer brick portion (not clay flue tiles) of our chimney. Hadn't had a fire in it for years. Asked a reputable company (Seattle/puget sound area) to come out an clean the chimney. They came out/cleaned; and gave us a report stating our chimney was toast; and a 'great deal' on having it relined with stainless steel... Got me to looking; research, etc. Found out a lot. One - a regular Joe can do this job themselves. 2. Had several other companies come on out, and give me bids for how much they would charge to line with Stainless. All THREE - stated my chimney was FINE; and did not need to be relined. Our house was built in 1950. Two of them (since we are getting ready to sell) told me that they would do a Write UP stating they had inspected our chimney; and it was FINE and SAFE - for FREE. All three of the companies stated it would be good if we had the tile brought up higher; and a crown put on... We did hire one of these companies to do that job. That company added clay tile; but did a lousy job (three times) putting in a new crown. They ended up hauling away the crown material they had done (it kept cracking within 24 hours of being done); and I poured the new existing crown. (Gee, no cracks.) sigh... Anyway, get several opinions. And Know that you can (if you truly need it) save yourself a ton of dollars - if you do this job yourself. A stainless liner does slightly reduce your draft. Usually nothing that you will notice. Flexible is easier to install than non flex. Here are a few links to places which provide how to info to general public; and will sell supplies to you... More info is readily available on the net. Good Luck. http://www.chimneylinerinc.com/liners_only_chimney.htm http://www.sleepyhollowchimneysupply.com/chimney_liner_superflex_304.htm http://www.chimney-liner-central.com/ http://www.chimneylinerexpress.com/ David PS: the one actual link is just one of the above. I guess you would have to 'copy/paste' the various suggested link texts into a browser.. I just did a quick search on +diy +liner +stainless +chimney Here is a link that might be useful: DIY Chimney Repair

I know our amusement park did LineX spray for their water slide. Check with your local spry liner rep and ask if they've done any and go from there.