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Noob home owner here. We just tried to get our fireplace cleaned for the winter. The guy that came out said we have an old double flue system that's dangerous and can't be used...

He said we need to replace to a newer flue system or replace with gas and left without cleaning it. Replacements are upwards $10,000?!

The previous owners seemed to be burning fires just fine with it. My wife and I want to get a second opinion but are double flue systems dangerous?? Home inspection report showed nothing wrong structurally with the stack, flue or fireplace.

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Alan Schwegler
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  • Any chance of taking a picture up your chimney? The concern is that, _if not done properly,_ a double-flue chimney has the potential to leak carbon monoxide (and other nasty things) into your home. Otherwise, it's a pretty common configuration. $10k seems pretty expensive to fix it, but it's hard to say for sure about any of this without seeing what it all looks like. Is it a double, back-to-back fireplace? Does your furnace/water heater use the same chimney? How/why does it have multiple flues? – gnicko Oct 27 '21 at 15:12
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    Pricing info is totally off-topic. What's "normal" for one country or part of a country could be absurdly high in a different one and a total bargain in yet a 3rd. Plus, it will change next week. Your best bet is to spend another `` or two to get some more opinions from additional contractors. if 2 of 3 say it needs to be fixed and the prices are the same, well, you know where you stand, even if you don't like it... – FreeMan Oct 27 '21 at 15:16
  • Inspection report added – Alan Schwegler Oct 27 '21 at 15:34
  • In my area double flues suppose to be at different heights, to stop smoke/fumes from going in the other flue. Regulations might have changed since then. Your chimney seems to have a single cap which probably makes it worst. Raising one flue and two caps should not be too expensive, if allowed by locals. – crip659 Oct 27 '21 at 15:48
  • Looking at the check boxes on the inspection report, it looks like your inspector didn't really inspect much in regard to the flue(s) and how it's all put together. Did the inspector not have access to the interior of the house? – gnicko Oct 27 '21 at 17:07
  • He def. did. We were not there at the time so he may have glossed over that. Hmm. – Alan Schwegler Oct 27 '21 at 17:44
  • to the extent it's dangerous or problematic, that would seemingly be lessened by having a fire to push up air on the non-utility run instead of (potentially) letting CO wander back into the fireplace half. – dandavis Oct 27 '21 at 20:19
  • @crip659 that is definitely area specific. Two or more flues in one chimney stack (of the same height) is very common in Europe. Even shared between houses is common. – handyman Oct 28 '21 at 10:27
  • I thought double flue chimneys, one for the furnace and one for the fireplace, for instance, is way better than sharing a single flue. – SteveSh Oct 28 '21 at 11:52

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Typically the important detail is how the two flues are lined. Older properties with brick built chimneys and no linings can leak flue gasses from one hot flue into the adjacent cold one (through eroded mortar joints) and potentially into a room.

However, many flues have been lined by now, usually with flexible metal pipe etc. Lining or re-lining with pipe is not usually a terribly complicated or expensive job. A local fireplace supplier will have more info.

handyman
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