Fireplace and partial chimney removal

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quickymart

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#306323 12-Jul-2023 20:49

I was looking at a place recently that had one of these similar to the image in a corner in the main room. I had no intention of ever using it and was looking at getting a heatpump instead - but I was wondering how hard would it be to remove a fire like the one above? It took up a fair amount of space and it would be good to have been able to repurpose it for something else.

Note that I would probably just want the fire itself removed and the chimney up to the interior roof - fine with the chimney being on the outside on the roof as long as it's fully sealed and doesn't leak at all.

Are these difficult to remove and what would they normally cost to get rid of?

Bung

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#3103492 12-Jul-2023 23:52

Our previous house had one made by Masport. The pot belly stove itself wouldn't be hard to remove, the legs should be bolted but once free it's about 40kg. In our case the stove sat on a brick hearth with bricks up the walls as high as the stove. Removing the bricks left a patch of floor without carpet and rough looking wall with holes where power points used to be.

quickymart

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#3103508 13-Jul-2023 08:05

Did you remove all of the chimney as well?

Bung

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#3103517 13-Jul-2023 08:24

The removal was done by the neighbour who bought the house off us. I had collected enough concrete tiles to fill the hole left by the flue but I'm not sure if he went that far. Once you take out the fire the 100mm flue loses that support so you might have to remove the inner flue and cap the outer flue. Whether the outer flue stays depends on whether the ceiling can be patched with it in place. What is your roof made of?

Swept

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#3103526 13-Jul-2023 08:57

Hi, chimney sweep here. We do a few removals a year.

First thing you need to find out is if there flue is straight or not in the ceiling cavity. If it has a bend or "offset", you're in for a difficult time.

A flue system comprises of the inner flue (stainless steel or enamel that takes the smoke out), the inner liner (also called the baffle liner) that floats between the flue and outer liner held in by a spider bracket, and then the outer liner (this is the one you actually see on the outside roof).

To remove;

Step 1: get on roof, disconnect the cowl. Get a tape measure, wrap it around the outside of the liner inside out, pull tight, and get the circumference. Divide by 3.14 and you will have the rough measurement of your outer liner for which you can get a cap made up for. Flue and liners go in 25mm increments in sizing, but you scale that by 2. 100mm flue will have a 150mm inner liner and a 200mm outer liner. However, most common sizing is 250mm for the outer liner.

Step 2: go down to the logfire look up at the ceiling and drop the ceiling plate. Look closely and see if there is a (spider) bracket holding the inner liner (the spider bracket is a metal ring with 3 arms coming off of it which the inner liner sits on). You can either pull the inner liner up from the top, or pull the entire flue up from the top. If there is no inner liner, you've got an easy job of simply removing the flue in sections by drilling rivets at the join, get angry with the flue join for it to disconnect, lift the flue above to remove the bottom one out. Repeat this step until all the flue has been pulled down.

Step 3: If the fire is bolted to the hearth, remove said bolts and lift off of hearth.

Step 4: Cover the outer liner with something (we use rubbish bags if we're waiting on the cap). Alternatively, you can put the cowl back on, but drop it hard down on the outer liner (cowls require a 25mm air gap between the liner when in use to allow hot air to escape) as to not get wind whistling down into your room.

I would recommend having a friend to help as there can be a few parts of a removal that requires 3 hands. Put a drop cloth down prior to starting anything as it will get messy (soot, dust etc.)

All going well, for a single story straight flue, this would take around 60-90 minutes.

johno1234

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#3103531 13-Jul-2023 09:10

Dang, we have a chimney sweep in GZ! I think we have got everything covered now!

Apologies for going OT but @Swept how does one know if one needs a chimney sweep? I ask because my sister's open fireplace is very smokey (burning firewood) and was wondering if that was part of the problem...

Swept

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#3103535 13-Jul-2023 09:14

Hi, no problem.

So the most common symtoms of a chimney requiring a sweep are the following:

Difficult to light or get going
Smokey regardless of how good the draw is or when new wood is put on
If it has a flue, it starts to heat and up glow (chimney fire)
Doesn't put out as much heat as it did in the past

Rule of thumb is to sweep a chimney at least once a year. Open fires are a bit different; some can go for years with no problem, some we need to sweep 2-8 times a year depending on usage and how it was originally built and designed.

mkissin

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#3103552 13-Jul-2023 10:04

johno1234:

Dang, we have a chimney sweep in GZ! I think we have got everything covered now!

Apologies for going OT but @Swept how does one know if one needs a chimney sweep? I ask because my sister's open fireplace is very smokey (burning firewood) and was wondering if that was part of the problem...

If you have a fireplace, it's very often a condition of house insurance that it is swept regularly, otherwise if a fire is traced to a clogged chimney, it's negligent.

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#3103578 13-Jul-2023 10:36

I removed something similar in my house about 18 months ago.

A local roofing company removed the entire chimney and patched the iron roof at a cost of about $750. I repaired the GIB ceiling.

I sold the wood burner on Trade Me and got $450, so that offset some of the cost.

Taking the wood burner itself out was fairly easy (but needed 2 people because it was very heavy). The hardest part was removing the extremely heavy and solid concrete hearth (which I did myself). It left some damage to the timber floor on removal, so that had to be repaired. I was renovating the whole house anyway, so that wasn't too much of an issue at the time.

networkn

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#3103663 13-Jul-2023 14:47

Hijack Alert:

@Swept are you based in Auckland? We sold our Pallet Fire, but the Flu is still through the wall, up the outside of the house and into the Eave.

We were wondering if it's worth removing and how to ensure everything is weather proof to satisfy our insurance.

I am not sure who to call about that given we aren't handy people.

Swept

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#3103665 13-Jul-2023 14:53

Hi,

Christchurch sorry. For the removal of a flue system (of any kind), you actually want an installer who knows how they're put together and can remove them without damaging anything around it.

Flue systems are installed, from a laymans perspective, a bit backwards. Whereas you may think the order would go; 1,2,3,4, when doing the install (or uninstall), the order is like; 3,1,4,2 - appears very odd, but once you see how they're put together, it makes sense.

A pellet fire installer would be my go to for removing the flue system, then a builder/handyman to patch any holes and roofing.

networkn

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#3103671 13-Jul-2023 15:10

Swept:

Hi,

Christchurch sorry. For the removal of a flue system (of any kind), you actually want an installer who knows how they're put together and can remove them without damaging anything around it.

Flue systems are installed, from a laymans perspective, a bit backwards. Whereas you may think the order would go; 1,2,3,4, when doing the install (or uninstall), the order is like; 3,1,4,2 - appears very odd, but once you see how they're put together, it makes sense.

A pellet fire installer would be my go to for removing the flue system, then a builder/handyman to patch any holes and roofing.

Thanks for the advice.

johno1234

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#3103683 13-Jul-2023 15:54

Swept:

Hi, no problem.

So the most common symtoms of a chimney requiring a sweep are the following:

Difficult to light or get going
Smokey regardless of how good the draw is or when new wood is put on
If it has a flue, it starts to heat and up glow (chimney fire)
Doesn't put out as much heat as it did in the past

Rule of thumb is to sweep a chimney at least once a year. Open fires are a bit different; some can go for years with no problem, some we need to sweep 2-8 times a year depending on usage and how it was originally built and designed.

Thanks will pass this on. House is rural outside Queenstown. Guessing that's not on your beat?

neb

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#3104165 14-Jul-2023 18:42

mkissin:
If you have a fireplace, it's very often a condition of house insurance that it is swept regularly, otherwise if a fire is traced to a clogged chimney, it's negligent.

Was going to add that to @Swept's when-to-do-it list, the insurance requirement is typically that it's swept yearly and you need to get a bit of paper to show it was done. There's no official form for it, just something to document that you've had it swept that year. Standard practice is to do it just before the cold really sets in, when all the chimney sweeps are flat out with all the other people who have had the same idea.