Stove Pipe Chimney Rescue

Today I took down my 26 foot single wall stove pipe that I'm using for a chimney. Story is, earlier this year I flipped the whole pipe upside down because rain water was wicking in thru the seems and running down the inside of the pipe, making a mess in my basement. Well when I flipped it, condensation was carrying fly ash to the outside of the pipe and it ate the paint down to the metal. Finally, I flipped the pipe AGAIN, washed all the nasty fly ash off it and sealed the seams with high temp silicone. Then I hoped for a nice day to do more.

In an effort to rescue my deteriorating pipe I sanded and soaked it with high temp stove paint today and put it back. I think its much happier now I'm hoping to get another year or two out of it since it did actually perform good thru the winter. Below are before and after pictures.

keep checking it thru the summer,in case it starts rusting and rotting again.In the mean time start looking into building a stick chimney.They don't cost all that much if done by yourself. The masonry chimney will last forever and get a better draft when using coal and won't have to worry about replacing the metal pipe except whats inside the basement.I don't think you will get more than 2 years from single wall pipe,with the weather conditions outside.

Will do! Yes, been thinking about building a masonry chimney

I'll keep an eye on it thru the summer. I plan to seal it off and use a de moisture compound to keep the inside dry. Hopefully the inside won't deteriorate more as well.

I don't know if it would be better to store the pipe inside untill next fall,to keep the rain and dampness off the pipe.

I give you an "E" for effort, but I think you will be hard pressed to get another season out of that pipe. Take advantage of the mild weather and get busy putting up a masonry chimney.

A masonry chimney can be a fun project if you enjoy building and don't mind a little heavy lifting. Make sure you have a thick, reinforced footer on virgin soil. When you're checking at masonry supply houses look for 'superior' or 'logan' brand flue - they're the best, stay away from kopp and others if you can. Get a bag or two of vermiculite and fill the void between the flue and block. Use "type S" premix morter only, do not use type N. Make sure you build it tall.

make sure you put a cleanout below the thimble for the appliance; the easiest way to do this is to lay two flue sections on their side where they go from the basement through the basement wall to the stack, one on top of the other - the top one is your appliance hookup, the bottom is your cleanout. if you don't want to spend money on a 'fancy' cast iron cleanout door, just stuff the bottom opening tightly with a big wad of fiberglass- it will seal better than most cleanout doors anyway and you just pull it out when you want to clean the stack.

Rob R. wrote:I give you an "E" for effort, but I think you will be hard pressed to get another season out of that pipe. Take advantage of the mild weather and get busy putting up a masonry chimney.

That pipe is still very solid and only 6 months old. I think if I can keep further deterioration thru the off season, it would be fine for another winter. It is 24 gauge also. The rust and corrosion was only on the surface, there was no rust thru or weak spots that I could find. I do worry about the inside of the pipe though. Its not like I can sand and paint that part lol.

I am considering building a masonry chimney this summer.
Maybe Berlin could give me a little more insight on getting it started.
Thank you for the great information

Rob R. wrote:I give you an "E" for effort, but I think you will be hard pressed to get another season out of that pipe. Take advantage of the mild weather and get busy putting up a masonry chimney.

I too agree masonary is forever with coal. 30 years ago I had mine built using refractory cement at the tile joints, even thought the mason disagreed, he is gone but the chimney is not. Also filled the voids with mineral insulation. The only hassle I have is the mortar joints above the roofline which break down every 5 or 10 years. Last year I ground them out with a diamond wheel, repointed and coated the surfaces with a masonary breatheable water repellant. I will let you know in 5 or 10 years how it works

Interesting discovery today with my stove pipe chimney. Today I found myself trying to choke down my fire by cutting air feed thru the ash pan door way more than usual. It seemed to have an aggressive draft around a .05 My normal is around a .025 WC.

Then I noticed my chimney is on the south side of my house and the sun was hammering down on it. I went and felt the pipe. On the sunny side its warm, on the back side its cold. Then the clouds rolled in. My draft plummeted to near zero in about 30 minutes.

I then had to give her some more air to lift draft pressure back up.

See that masony chimney to the right? It has two flues. One goes to a fireplace in the living room where my wood pellet stove insert is vented thru it, the other goes into the basement and I used to have my propane furnace vented into it. When I installed the coal furnace last year, I didn't think it was worthy so thats why I put up the temporary pipe. I didn't think it would take the heat. But after getting thru a season and knowing what I've learned, I'm gonna consider using it. You can see the top two layers of brick are rotton from condensation from propane exhaust freezing and thawing until it just started to crumble. I'm gonna rebuild the top 2 or maybe 3 layers of brick. I also want to drop a camera down it taking video so I can better see how the inside looks. Any advise?

You ought to skim the whole exterior of the chimney while your up there.

I would pressure wash the stack and apply three coats of OIL based drylok to the stack AFTER you extend it a min. of 2' higher than it currently is; you want the top of the flue tile to be about 4' above the peak. Don't be afraid of using an older masonry stack, even if it's not in perfect shape. As long as the flue tile stack isn't totally disintegrated you'll be fine; don't concern yourself with cracks on flue tiles especially if they're vertical cracks, as long as they're not collapsing they'll last for years and be safe. The three things you want to do: rebuild top while extending the height; add sloped shoulders where the stack expands to accommodate the fireplace, and finally; pressure wash the stack and coat with three coats of OIL based drylok.

YUP, what BERLIN said.

Fantastic Berlin Looks like I have me a little summer chimney project!!

Just wantd to update my chimney status for those of you that offered the great advise! Well firstly, the pipe didn't make it thru the summer It rotted and had soft spots on the whole length of it. The 90 degree angle at the bottom totally rotted out. Guess I was a tad optomistic about its survival after my efforts to preserve it lol. So, no stove pipe chimney this year

Good news! I rebuilt the top couple layers on my block chimney and its looking a lot healthier. I didn't get to coat it yet like Berlin and Fred suggested, but its usable at any rate. I shined a light down thru the top and used a mirror to look up from the bottom and I don't see any obstructions. I cleaned out all the debris where the flue 90 degrees into the basement. All looks good!! I have the stove pipe in the basement from the furnace to the flue all put back together. My 6 inch stove pipe goes into an 8 inch square flue. I sealed around the pipe with tightly packed fiberglass insulation. I didn't know what else to use, and I know that stuff doesn't burn very good lol. Is there something better I can do there??

I got the mano in place and calibrated and much to my amazement the block chimney is averaging a draft of .015 with just a 100 watt bulb in the furnace I'm looking forward to lighting a fire I'm already thinking my draft will be more reliable and consistant

Sounds real good lightning. Light er up dude.