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| Before |
Capping my old chimney will hopefully reduce my home energy use.
This chimney has not been required since the old oil burning furnace was removed.
Covered with a tin roof and screen, the old chimney was essentially an open tube from the roof down into my basement.
Although closed off at the bottom, this steel lined pipe was open at the top allowing convective flow from the top of the tube all the way down through the brick chimney core. In other words, some of my expensive heated air was rising out the chimney. Cold air was replacing it by sinking down to the lowest level of the house, right through the center of the house, without much insulation around it.
About stack effect.
The new propane furnace installed three years ago vents through the wall of the basement so this chimney is no longer required. In a major renovation, a chimney like this might be removed entirely from the building and covered over at the roof line but that is not in the plan.
So the next best thing seemed to be cutting the airflow at the top in a permanent waterproof manner. I finally got around to this job three years late. I hate working on my roof.
Above was the top of the chimney showing the 7 inch diameter stainless steel liner and the old chimney cap. That was a pretty large opening into my house!
I used a cutting disk in a grinder to cut through the steel level with the stone and discarded the cap.
On the level surface I laid a bead of mortar then set the patio stone onto the chimney.
Once the mortar had cured, I added a layer of fibre glass tape and roof sealer to the joint.
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| After |
Thank you for your interest.
George Plhak
Lions Head, Ontario, Canada
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