Help me jump from gas to fire

October 10, 2008 6:36 AM

Jumping from the gas into the fire?

I live in a house that's about 40 years old. It has two gas fireplaces: one in the living room; one directly below it in a den. They share a chimney stack with our home gas furnace. One big wide chimney; three separate channels. I want to convert the den fireplace to a wood-burning one. Both fireplaces are masonry and in great shape. Both have working flue closures above them. I thought this would be easy. I call a fireplace tech out to look it over and tell me what this will cost. He says he's not sure. Goes back to the shop to confer with senior guys. Calls and says, they can take out the gas workings but I need to have the chimney 'certified'. So we call a chimney service. They say they'll come out and certify the chimney for about $200 with a process that drops a camera down in it and all that. My sense is that this is appropriate if you suspect there is some kind of damage, or if you're buying as home and want to be sure of the chimney's integrity, but this is overkill for a guy who wants to do what I want to do. So I'm looking at spending $300 (for the gas guy and the chimney guy) just to find out if I can do the conversion. I'll have to spend more to have it done. So I ask:

1) The gas guy says that if the chimney was only ever used for gas (which is true) the chimney doesn't have to be cleaned. Is this true?

2) Is there any benefit in spending $200 to get it 'certified' when I have no reason to believe there is anything wrong whatsoever with the chimney?

3) Any reason why I shouldn't just ignore any sort of certification, pay a sweep $65 to clean it out just to make sure there aren't any nests or obstructions, have the gas guys cap the gas lines remove the works and burn away?

What seemed like an easy thing is turning out to be a lengthy time and money suck. Any help I can get to make this simpler and cheaper would be greatly appreciated.

posted by lpsguy to home & garden (6 comments total)

Is there any benefit in spending $200 to get it 'certified' when I have no reason to believe there is anything wrong whatsoever with the chimney?

Sounds to me like this is a legal/building-code requirement. If the gas guy first tells you it needs to be certified and then agrees to what you suggest in #3, then I'd not use his services -- he lied to you either before or after.
posted by winston at 6:45 AM on October 10, 2008

1) The gas guy says that if the chimney was only ever used for gas (which is true) the chimney doesn't have to be cleaned. Is this true?

Relatively pure natural gas produces no significant ash or soot from combustion.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 6:52 AM on October 10, 2008

Is there any benefit in spending $200 to get it 'certified' when I have no reason to believe there is anything wrong whatsoever with the chimney?

If your house caught on fire the first time you lit some logs in the fireplace, the certification would make for a much easier chat with your insurance company. Honestly (and I know this is easy to say because it isn't my money), the $300 seems like a small price to pay given the consequences if something were to go wrong. It will keep you legal with the city and your insurance (though your rates might change with a working fireplace in the house), and is an opportunity to find out if the initial work was done right or not, if there are dangerous problems, etc.

Long-term, I think you will be happy to have spent the money.
posted by Forktine at 7:01 AM on October 10, 2008

There may be a difference in the requirements for a chimney used for gas flames vs. a wood-burning fireplace. A wood fire can produce extremely high heat, and very high flames, whereas a gas flame is limited by the amount of fuel that can be fed to the burners. Heat resistance varies from one type of brick to another.

Just a non-expert thought. But here in fireplace-heavy Montana, it seems like every year, at least one or two houses burn down due to inadequately built chimneys. I'd sure want to be safe.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2008

Sounds to me like this is a legal/building-code requirement.

Agreed. I'd try calling your local fire department (the non-emergency line, of course) and ask them what the legal requirements are for the type of work you're suggesting. If they don't know all the details, they should at least be able to point you in the right direction.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:52 AM on October 10, 2008

Just a followup to thank everyone for their help and to update.

Well, the simple desire of burning wood has turned into a hellish journey. I did indeed call a chimney inspection service who for $300 dropped cameras down the flues and all that. In the end, the said that all three of my flues needed to have the terra cotta linings knocked out of them and new liners inserted ... all at the bargain price of $5,000 PER FLUE!

While it's kind of hard to disupte their diagnosis – there were pictures and all – we are shopping around to get other estimates. But I called two other services two days ago and neither even returned my call.

So I'm already out $500; have no working fireplaces, gas or wood; and am staring at upwards of $15,000 to make it happen.

Sigh. All I wanted to do was burn some logs.

Any further advice would warm my soul. Thanks.
posted by lpsguy at 8:37 AM on November 12, 2008