[AT] OT - Old Chimney Question

[charlie hill]

Hi Rob,

You are right to be concerned.  I have had a chimney fire or two and they 
are scary at best.  Luckily mine were contained in the chimney.  If the idea 
of your whole house rumbling while flames shoot several feet out of the top 
of your chimney for a couple of minutes bothers you then  don't allow 
creosote to build up.

Folks around here handle the problem by first making sure their chimney is 
sound and properly designed and then by periodically allowing the fire to 
burn every hot  with an open draft to keep the creosote "burned" out before 
it gets to a critical mass.  Cleaning with the brushes certainly would help 
too!

Oh by the way...... "Stand in the fireplace"???   Wow you weren't kidding 
about it being a BIG fireplace!

Charlie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob Gray" <Robgray at epix.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 4:11 PM
Subject: [AT] OT - Old Chimney Question


>I apologize for the off-topic post but I figure some folks on here might 
>have some good advice (and this is rural related in that it involves the 
>burning of firewood and I also use my old tractor to drag the felled trees 
>with)... ;)
>
> My house has a main chimney primarily used for the first floor fireplace. 
> This big old fireplace was originally used for cooking when the house was 
> built. This chimney is the old, non-lined, wide-open type and it has a 
> stove pipe that accesses it on the second floor. The chimney has a large 
> flag stone on the top to keep rain out. The second floor stove pipe just 
> sticks out a few inches into the chimney. I have a woodstove connected to 
> that second floor pipe. My concern is that this woodstove is exhausing 
> into a large chimney and this creates a lot of creosote. I have read that 
> having woodstove smoke output into a large chimney can cause creosote 
> buildup since the smoke hits the walls of the relatively cold chimney and 
> leaves a lot of creosote.When I stand in the fireplace and shine a 
> flashlight up the chimney I can see shiny creosote on the walls of the 
> chimney starting just above the stove pipe.  How concerned would you be 
> with this situation? Is this an acceptable way to use this stove as long 
> as I regularly clean the chimney with  my extension brushes? I'm leery of 
> a chimney fire.....
>
> Any advice would be appreciated.
>
> Rob
> NE PA
>
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