I just finished pulling all the old cedar siding off my chimney. (I’m residing, among other things.) Lap siding was just nailed directly to 2x4s. The fireplace and chimney are cantilevered out from the house. Boy is it a wobbly mess. Squirrels were living in there, as well as carpenter ants. Rot is rampant. Inside is one of those sheet metal pre-fab fireplaces and flue hooked up with gas logs. Winter is over and we didn’t light it once. My new husband wants a real fire or no fire at all. I was raised to believe a chimney has to be higher than your roof to draw. This dumpy little chimney is at least 6 feet lower than any point of my roof. I think a roaring fire would be a terrible mistake.
Anyway, I just replaced the window next to the fireplace, so I have to redo the sheetrock on the inside of that wall anyway. I’m about ready to tear out the whole thing with it’s uninsulated stone face and it’s cracked hearth and all. Just a few studs to finish the wall and little roof work to take out the cricket and I’d be good to go. All around I think it would cost less in materials to get rid of it than to reside it.
Is that sane? I asked the guy who appraised the house a few months ago if fireplaces added a lot of value, and he just shrugged and said not really. Can I get a concensus on that? I got a new blade in my reciprocating saw and a dump truck coming tomorrow….
B
Replies
A real, and properly done, fireplace/chimney will add to the value of the home.
It sounds to me like you don't have that. You have something that was set up strictly for the "sheet metal pre-fab fireplace and flue". Being cut short below your roofline was probably a way to get around certain codes, or to save money on the masonry, or both and/or more. The intention was probably that a standard woodstove stovepipe be run up from the top of that, to a level well above the roofline.
Building a 'real fire' in this thing, sans insert, would indeed, be insane. It would probably be close to that as well, if you built a fire in the insert without the extra stovepipe above the 'chimney' extending the draw above the roofline. I would get rid of it if you do not intend to keep the insert it was built for. If you want a real fireplace and a real fire, this will have to be taken down and replaced with the complete 'real' thing anyway.
Hurrah! That's one vote for junking it!
I have a titanium crowbar. I am really ready to do this...
I'm already imagining using that gas line to hook up a fabulous new natural gas grill. I'll put it on a patio made of that flagstone surround.
B
Go ahead and tear it off. Around here the fireplace is regarded as a luxury upgrade in the eyes of the tax assessors but a wood stove is not( they view it as a necessity)
Excellence is its own reward!
Jeff,
YU cain't be the REAL Luka, Demi-god of the cyber mount, can you?Excellence is its own reward!
OK, thanks for all the support. The fireplace is now in the backyard killing my fescue. My husband is convinced it's some kind of treasure and should be sold. I'm just worrying about how much I'm going to pay to get it hauled off.
I just added 4' to my bathroom for a tub and added a window that was facing that chimney. I will have a much better view from my tub now that the chimney is gone. I am so pleased with myself.
Next I have to convince my husband to let me take the crickets off the roof and let the water just run the way it's meant to, into a new gutter we have to buy anyway. He thinks it's too much work. I'm the one that would do it, so I don't see how that figures into it. It just looks dumb as all get out to have that cricket for no reason. Besides it's a former 2x4 stud wall shy of the exterior wall. I even have several packets of shingles left over from when I reroofed the house 6 years ago. They'll still match I bet. I added 4' of porch to the other side of that sunroom about 3 years ago and you can't even tell where I added the shingles. Except for that dip in the roof, and that's the carpenter's fault. The shingles I did myself and they look fine.
There are 2 sets of crickets behind where my chimney used to be. Whoever built the sunroom addition butted their new roof up to the chimney and just put a new cricket going one way over the original 2 way one. So under all that, there's perfectly good roof deck right where I need it!
It's supposed to rain until Monday anyway. When the husband goes back to work I can just go back on the roof with my titanium crowbar and finish what I started.
B, if we weren't married to other people I'd be proposing to you right now!Steve
S.J.MERRETTE Carpentry & Construction • Robesonia, PA
Nothing is impossible...It just hasn't been done yet.
" B, if we weren't married to other people I'd be proposing to you right now!"
Yeah, but her husband needs her more than you do!
Rich Beckman
Sure sounds like it Rich. ;)Steve
S.J.MERRETTE Carpentry & Construction • Robesonia, PA
Nothing is impossible...It just hasn't been done yet.