Chimney Issues

Last night I was cleaning out my chimney through the cleanout and decided to put a light up and look at what was going on in there. I am in the process of installing a Keystoker warm air furnace, but currently have a natural gas warm air furnace hooked into the flue. Here's the story:

The house is a 3 story victorian home and was built in 1894. The chimney is some 40' high with three flues. Two of them go to fireplaces on the first and second floor. The third (center flue) travels to the basement for the furnace. When I bought the home a few years ago, the previous owner installed a liner (6" I believe) and I was under the impression that it was a stainless steel liner. It came to my attention that it was a flex liner and appeared to be aluminum--it said in plain writing 'not for use with solid fuels' on the connection between the chimney and the furnace pipe.

Now comes the big question--what do I do from here?

Do I remove this liner and have the chimney inspected? Obviously there was a reason why the liner was put in in the first place.

Do I use the current liner with my A-350? Keep in mind it has a 10" exhaust stack on it! or

Do I have a poured-in liner installed? This is a high-ass chimney, and I certainly wouldn't want to be up there doing the work!

I have read some of the other posts regarding chimneys and there seems to be a lot of different ideas out there. I know some shy away from stainless steel liners in the coal field, so I just was looking for some more ideas.

I appreciate any help. I'm somewhat discouraged this morning--I've put a lot of work into this furnace so far, and I would like to be able to use it!!

Thanks.

How large is the flue
Most stove shops will install a 8" SS flex pipe for around 1300 to 1800 dollars.
Will a 8" fit and is it enough?
BDD

It is probably flex stainless steel, it is very thin and hard to tell from aluminum.

Try it and see what kind of draft you get.

With anthracite all you get is fly ash, I cirtainly would NOT burn wood, because creosote would quickly stick to flex pipe. Even some bituminous coal will have a lot of soot and possibly cause a problem.

Next problem is going to be over time rust or corrosion will eventually get to the flex pipe, a few small holes will not amount to much, eventually it will fail. ( How old are you?).

Also the chimney may draw just fine without a line at all, but I would wait to find out.

Be sure to have a good Co meter.

Bk

Art, how big is the the flue without the liner? If it is much bigger than the 6" liner than its quite possible the liner was install because the flue it to big. Is the orginal flue lined at all? Let us know.

The flue is probably 7 or 8 inches without the gas approved flex liner. I don't believe that the chimney is lined with anything outside of the liner that is currently in there. Should I look into something like the Thermocrete, or do you think I could remove the current liner from the chimney and be fine?

The flue is probably 7 or 8 inches without the gas approved flex liner. I don't believe that the chimney is lined with anything outside of the liner that is currently in there. Should I look into something like the Thermocrete, or do you think I could remove the current liner from the chimney and be fine?

I hate to give anyone bad advise or make them spend money when they don't have to. I am not an expert on anything, Chimneys included.

Does your Chimney look like this?
or like this?
The first is the bottom of my old chimney where it was unlined to the thimble. 8x12
The second is me tearing it out with the flue 8x12

If your's is unlined then I would look at having it lined to the correct size (10") if it would fit or even the poured liner. That being said you probably should have a chimney sweep look at it. For safety reasons, if you are unsure.

It sounds like its probably aluminum. Most brick chimneys that are relined for use with a gas burning device are lined using flexible aluminum. You cannot use it for coal. It's too small anyway. I'd have that brick flue inspected before use. Many unlined brick chimneys from that era have loose and missing mortar, even loose and missing bricks that could be open into one of the adjoining flues. If your A-350 requires a 10" flue, you might be in trouble if its only an 8" flue.

If in fact the liner is aluminum, pull it out. I would check the chimney's condition and if in good shape use it as is even if not lined. A 40' interior chimney will make a serious draft even with a few bricks missing. If the chimney is in rough shape a cast in place liner is the best bet as it will strengthen and insulate it. I would not use a S/S liner.

take a look at the flu, if it's unlined and in decent condition (no holes etc.) i'd run it w/ out a liner and be happy with it.

Thanks for all the help on this chimney stuff guys. Actually, I spent quite a bit of time last evening looking at my chimney through the cleanout (you can actually crawl into it through the cleanout---it's that big!). I found that my chimney IS in fact lined (clay) and that it is a nice size, ~12 x 8 flue. That's the good news.

The bad news is that I have to take out the aluminum liner that is currently feeding my gas furnace (it was installed by the previous owner due to the moisture that gas furnaces can create). As I stated previously, the chimney is high, and I'll have to get up there (carefully) to take this out. Any easy ways to take out the pipe?

I've attached pictures--they didn't turn out really well--but these pictures are taken looking up from the cleanout looking at the top of the chamber. You will notice that some of the clay lining was broken out to facilitate the aluminum liner. The clay lining/brick used to come directly over to where the liner comes out of the chimney wall and the furnace hooks up to it. I assume that I'll have to put that back the way it was, unless anyone has a better idea.

Pictures are in the word document attachment.

Just looking for some tips. Thanks!

Here's a picture without opening the attachment: