Old metal chimney liner surrounded by dirt at base

rbd33

I recently had my old 3 layer air cooled metal chimney liner replaced. It had been surrounded by a metal chimney housing. I think it was about 30 years old. I don’t recall replacing the liner.  Originally the housing had a cap that was open on the sides- ie no caging. A squirrel actually ate thru the roof at the base and got into my house. I remember seeing him peeking out the top of the chimney housing as well. The original chimney and housing were there from 1978-2002. The open sided cap was with this one. I then had the roof repaired and a new housing placed with a caged metal cap. I think this housing was too large as it was only a few inches from the roof edge. I ended up with water running down my wall. This was then replaced with an air jet metal housing with the cap that came with the kit. The cap was open sided but had a pan on the bottom so only open over the flue pipe.  When the chimney was removed
there was a lot of dirt-like pounds worth at the base surrounding the liner and filling the metal chimney support. The workers didn’t speak English well so I couldn’t ask and really want to know how all this dirt could have gotten there. The outer wall of the liner had rust running down one side with a couple of holes in the outer layer and the whole base of the outer layer was rusted and corroded, some of it even missing completely -this was on the sane side as the rust running down the pipe. I don’t know much about any of this. Looking for explanations. I’d had the chimney cleaned and no one ever mentioned problems. Thank you for any thoughts.  

EdTheHeaterMan

The "Dirt" that you are talking about... What did it consist of? That would help pinpoint the source. If the dirt was leaves, that would have a different source that if it were mostly carbon (SOOT).

What you are describing sounds like a Class A manufactured chimney. A liner would be a single wall metal pipe that is inserted in a masonry chimney. Sometimes the terracotta sections of the inside of a masonry chimney are referred to as a liner.

This might be what you are referring to: http://www.csiworldwide.com/AirJet/All-Fuel Chimney.htm. These manufactured chimneys come with detailed installation instructions in order to make them safe and weather proof. A roofer may not be the best person to install a chimney. You may want to contact a fireplace company or a certified chimney sweep for expert installation and maintenance of this situation.

You are literally playing with fire. Use an expert.

mattmia2

It may be vermiculite that was poured in as insulation.

Bob Harper

It may be mud dauber wasp nests. Regardless, he needs to get a chimney pro in there asap. Can the OP post pics from above and at the base?

MikeAmann

My guess is ants. Did the dirt look anything like what ants eject out of the tops of the anthills in your lawn?

rbd33

Thanks for the replies. The liner has been replaced with a Selkirk UltraTemp chimney. What I had was an air cooled (no Insulation) 3 layer galvanized metal liner that was shielded above the roofline by a prefab metal housing. During its lifetime there was an open sided (no caging) cap, a caged cap, and then another opened sided cap that had that had a metal bottom covering the housing opening, with a hole for the flue pipe. The dirt looked like dirt. It was not soot. It was light to medium brown color. The dirt was around the base of the pipe in the chimney support box. There were leaves in the T pipe that attached to the support. The pipe that is the cleanout.

rbd33

MikeAmann said:

My guess is ants. Did the dirt look anything like what ants eject out of the tops of the anthills in your lawn?

It did look like that but there was a lot of it. Like a good few pounds. There had been raccoons in my attic that went thru that space at one point.