Your Chimney Liner: Maintenance & Repair
You can’t see it, but it keeps your chimney working safely and efficiently. Call our team to get yours checked or repaired before the cold season hits.
Your Chimney Problems & the Chimney Liner
Are you having chimney odor issues? Problems with your draft? Chances are your liner could be damaged.
Your chimney liner exhaust the flue gases and smoke out of your fireplace or furnace flue and allow the hot and toxic gases to exit your home safely. Any breaks or openings in the chimney liner can lead to serious problems, potentially allowing a spark or floating ember to escape into the area between the lining and the chimney or allowing the intrusion of carbon monoxide into the living space.
Cracks, breaches or deterioration of your flue can affect the way your system performs, affecting the way it draws and interfering with the draft. The flue system acts like a straw, causing the flue gases to be pulled up and out of the system from the top. If the flue has cracks or missing mortar joints, it will not perform as intended, similar to drinking out of a straw with holes in it.
Fernando and his crew at Winston’s were exceptional at their craft. Within a day, they had patched the liner of my parent’s chimney (which they hadn’t used in 20 years) and also installed a 16′ stainless steel liner. In addition, they created a small door on the outside of the chimney for easy access to inspect and clean in the future. Our family is excited to have fires again and Fernando and his crew were professional, answered any questions we had, were done in a reasonable time and importantly, were just good guys. And the life-time guarantee means they stand behind their word. Thank you Winston’s!
What To Do
Relining your fireplace, woodstove, furnace or water heater flue with stainless steel is the most common method used to repair a damaged or deteriorated chimney flue. We also find in some of the older fireplaces that a flue was never installed and this needs to be corrected as quickly as possible for safety and to bring the chimney up to the current standards and codes.
When a new furnace, boiler or water heater is installed, a new liner may be needed to properly size the more efficient appliance. The sizing is important because as the flue gases rise, they cool and condense. If the flue/liner is too large, the gases may not vent properly. In Virginia, to meet code, the system must be certified to be free of defects and be sized properly when a new appliance is installed.
