Parts can take a varying amount of time to become available based upon the time of year. During the fall, which is the busy season in the chimney industry, parts can take up to a full month to come in. For this reason, we recommend having chimney repairs and maintenance performed in the spring.

Once the parts for the repair become available and we receive them, the installation process begins. A chimney liner installation process is different in every case, but it will always begin with setting up some sort of safe roof access. We need to be as safe as possible while bringing the large chimney liner onto the roof. Sometimes these liners are up to fifty feet long!

Once safe roof access has been established we will begin by opening up the thimble or damper area depending on what kind of liner is being installed. (All floors will be protected in our work area to avoid staining on the carpets where applicable) Once we have a workable area toward the bottom of where our liner will terminate, we will begin our work toward the top of the chimney.

At the top of the chimney we will either begin to break the current clay flue tiles out, or begin to drop the liner down the existing flue tiles. We will always break the existing flue tiles out of the chimney if the tiles have creosote on them that could not be easily removed in order to prevent a chimney fire from happening on the outside of the newly installed lining system. We will also remove the current, defective clay tile flue system if there is not enough room inside of it to fit a properly sized, stainless steel lining system.

Once the clay flue tiles have been removed, (when applicable) we will drop the new lining system down from the top of the chimney. We will, at times, use a pulling cone and a rope to help direct the new chimney liner to the prepared hole at the bottom of the chimney. Once the new chimney liner is all the way down the chimney to the prepared hole at the bottom, we will connect the new chimney liner to the appliance using only approved components designed for such use. (fireplaces are done a little differently) Once the bottom is terminated properly and the new chimney liner is properly connected to the appliance, we will use our approved top kit, which includes a rain cap, to properly terminate the chimney liner at the top of the chimney. At this point, the new chimney liner has been successfully installed, and we will begin cleaning up. (The installation process takes anywhere between four and twelve hours.) Cleaning up involves taking all the old clay lining system with us in a series of five gallon buckets when applicable. It also incorporates cleaning all floors in our work area with a high powered HEPA filtrated vacuum designed to prevent the smallest dust particles from getting into the air. 

Once clean up is complete, the job is done! We will remove our scaffolding from the roof and/or any other roof safety equipment we have set up, and we will be on our way. If you have any specific questions about our chimney liner installation process, please don't hesitate to ask!

Oil fumes can actually eat through some forms of steel chimney liners as well, that's why it is so important to have a certified chimney sweep install the replacement chimney liner when it is necessary to do so. Some forms of metal, and some thicknesses of metal can not withstand the damage that is caused by the sulfuric acid produced by burning oil.

The second reason that a chimney liner would need to be repaired in NH is if the chimney liner underwent a concentrated high heat event. A simpler term for this type of event is a chimney fire. If a chimney liner goes through a chimney fire there is a high probability that the chimney liner has become defective over the course of the chimney fire. This is especially true when it comes to clay chimney liners. Clay chimney liners will easily crack when faced with a concentrated high heat event like a chimney fire. Once a chimney liner has cracked, it is no longer able to contain the by-products of combustion and must be replaced per NFPA 211 standards.

The third most common reason that we see chimney liners that need to be replaced in NH is when there are gaps in the flue tiles. (excluding oil burning flues) The reason these gaps tend to appear in between the flue tiles is often because an incorrect form of mortar was used when constructing the original clay flue liner. When building a clay flue liner, a more expensive version of mortar known as refractory, non water soluble mortar is supposed to be used. When this form of mortar is not used it can cause the mortar joints to flake and wash away over time creating holes and gaps in the lining system. (This process is accelerated when their is no chimney cap present) These holes and gaps make the chimney liner incapable of containing the by-products of combustion and per NFPA 211 standards, the chimney liner must be replaced.