Chimney Flue Repair and Relining in Cherry Hill, NJ

A damaged flue usually shows as cracked or missing tile, open joints, or pieces of tile and grit at the base of the chimney. Most of those signs can only be seen from inside, so they tend to turn up during a chimney cleaning, when the flue is brushed and a light shows the condition of the walls. Homeowners can check two things themselves: the cleanout door at the bottom of the stack, where flakes of tile collect, and the draft hood on a gas water heater, where rust or scorch marks suggest exhaust is spilling instead of rising.

Other warnings come from the house. Damp patches on a wall beside the chimney, white staining high on the brick, or a smell of exhaust near the furnace all deserve attention. A carbon monoxide alarm that sounds is a different matter altogether: leave the house and call for help from outside. Once things are safe, a blocked or leaking flue is one of the first places to look. After any chimney fire, stop using the flue until it has been inspected, since that heat can crack tile even when nothing shows at the fireplace.

A new high-efficiency furnace vents through plastic pipe out a side wall, which can leave the water heater alone in a flue sized for two appliances. That one small burner cannot warm a large masonry flue, so its exhaust cools on the way up. The water vapor condenses, drips down the walls and works on the mortar, and a weak draft can leave exhaust lingering at the draft hood. This is one of the most common flue problems in Cherry Hill, Maple Shade and Pennsauken houses, where the furnace is often the newest thing in the utility room and the chimney is the oldest.

A liner sized to the water heater is the usual repair, because it gives the exhaust a path small enough to stay warm. New Jersey's residential code sets the basic limit here as well: a chimney flue cannot be smaller than the connector feeding it, and flues that carry more than one appliance are sized by their own rules. Ask for the appliance's input and the flue's measurements in writing. Anyone planning a furnace change should raise the chimney with the installer first, so the flue is not an afterthought.

A flue with a few open joints or one short damaged section can sometimes be repaired, and a flue with widespread cracking, missing tile or no liner at all is relined. New Jersey's residential code says masonry chimneys shall be lined, with lining material appropriate for the appliance connected. So an unlined prewar flue serving a gas boiler is not a condition to leave alone once it has been found, and a repair can restore only what is already there. Sound tile with worn joints is the case for spot work, and the condition of the rest of the flue decides how far that gets you.

Relining leaves the old masonry in place as a shell around the new liner. Metal is the common choice, and the fuel decides which one. Aluminum liners are made for gas appliances only, and their makers rule them out for oil, wood, pellets and coal, while stainless steel suits all of those. The liner has to be sized and installed to its listing. A house that may change fuel later is better served by stainless. Your town's building department can say if relining calls for a permit.

Each appliance and each flue is traced first, because a two-family house can have two furnaces and two water heaters venting into one stack. A Collingswood basement with that arrangement may have appliances that were replaced at different times, by different installers, for different owners. Before any repair is priced, it helps to know which connector goes to which flue and whether any have been joined along the way, since the size of the flue has to match everything feeding it.

A shared party wall adds a reason for care, because a crack in a flue on one side of a twin can matter to the house next door. Owners of rentals should plan access for both units and tell tenants about any days the heat or hot water will be off. When a flue is relined, the appliances are reconnected by whoever services them, so it pays to line up the heating contractor for the same week. Fireplace flues beside the heating flue are judged on their own, since a stack may hold one sound flue and one failed one.

A factory-built flue is repaired by replacing damaged sections with parts listed for that same system, since it cannot be relined like a masonry chimney. Those metal flues rise through framed chases in many homes in Voorhees, Evesham and Mount Laurel, and New Jersey's code requires them to be installed according to the maker's instructions. Heat warps them, a chimney fire can buckle them, and water coming through a rusted chase cover corrodes them from the outside. When a system is out of production, finding matching parts is the hard part, and a replacement may be the realistic answer.

On a masonry flue or a metal one, the repair begins with a clean flue and a clear look. AMG Duct Cleaning Cherry Hill, veteran owned and licensed and insured, gives a free estimate with photos of what was found, and the work covers Cherry Hill and the towns of Camden County and Burlington County. If water played a part, the crown, the cap and the flashing get fixed under chimney repair at the same time, so a new liner does not end up in a wet stack.