Chimney Recommendations Needed

[Tim Liston]

So I got home last Thursday to a house that was only 56 degrees, heat had been out for some time. Glad it was relatively warm....

Bruce from Slife came right over (Slife is great by the way) and said that the flue wasn't drawing and there's a tripped sensor on the boiler that detects spilled heat, shutting down the boiler. And quite possibly the flue was obstructed. He also recommended a chimney cap, we don't have any.

Bruce restarted the boiler, and when the flue warmed up it drew pretty well, but I did spend a sleepless night, because I turned it off right away, woke myself up at 2 AM to start it again and babysat it the rest of the night, making sure it was drawing OK. Family got to sleep....

Friday morning Dick Slife stops by, looks up the flue with a mirror and cannot see daylight. So I call a chimney guy who stops by in the early afternoon, he has a flexible pole thing that he ran right up the flue with no difficulty, apparently no blockage. While waiting for him I bought two CO detectors with digital readouts, they indicate no CO anywhere.

I believe what I need is this, recommendations on a chimney company that (1) can get to the top of the chimney (steep clay tile roof) to check for flue blockages for certain-sure, and (2) give an honest recommendation as to the need for chimney caps and possibly a liner for the boiler flue (there was a fair amount of loose mortar at the bottom of the flue, much more than I have seen previously). Anybody have good experiences with anyone in particular?

Thanks.

[Stephen Eisel]

Tim, the gentlemen who put our furnce in (about 6 years ago) used a chimney liner. He was very adamant about using one. It had some thing do with the exhaust temperature of the new furnace (cooler) versus the old one. He was worried about condensation building up in the chimney with out the liner.