Is a liner repair needed if the fireplace is only lit a few times each winter?

Yes, if the liner is damaged. A fire does not have to be frequent to push heat or gases through a crack. Light use changes how quickly deposit builds, not whether a cracked liner is safe.

Does a gas insert need its own liner?

The insert's listing and installation instructions govern how it vents, and they often call for a dedicated liner running from the insert to the top of the chimney. An old clay flue on its own is frequently not what the manufacturer specifies.

What happens to the old clay tiles when a flue is relined?

They are usually left in place, with the new liner running inside them. Tiles are only broken out when the new liner needs more room than the old flue allows, which is a bigger and messier job.

Gloved hands lowering a rotary brush into the flue of a soot-stained brick chimney

Burbank, CA · Chimney Liner Repair

Chimney Liner Repair in Burbank

Chimney liner repair in Burbank deals with the lining inside the flue, which in most masonry chimneys is a stack of clay tiles joined with mortar. When a tile cracks or a joint opens, heat and combustion gases can reach the brick and any framing around it. Until the liner has been looked at, the fireplace is best left unlit.

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Chimney Liner Repair · Burbank

How clay flue tiles crack: chimney fires, heat shock and ground movement

Clay tile handles steady heat well and sudden heat badly. A hot fire in a cold flue heats the inner face of each tile far faster than the outer face, and the stress can split it along its length. A chimney fire does the same thing much more violently, and cracked tiles are a common after-effect.

Shaking is the other cause. The Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994 hit the San Fernando Valley hard, and a flue older than that has been through it. Where tiles are stacked with little mortar between them, movement can open joints or push one tile out of line with the next, and the brick outside may show nothing at all.

Signs the liner, not the brick, is the problem

Most of these are indirect, because the liner cannot be seen from the room:

1Pieces of fired clay, often curved or with a glazed face, on the smoke shelf or firebox floor.
2A smoky smell in a room or cupboard next to the chimney, or in the attic, while a fire is burning.
3Dark staining that seeps through the outside brick high on the chimney.
4Any sign of a past chimney fire: puffed creosote, a warped damper or cap, or cracked brick near the top.

Resurfacing a few joints or relining the whole flue

The extent decides it. Where damage is limited to a few open joints or a short section, the liner can sometimes be repaired in place, by rebuilding the joints or applying a heat-resistant resurfacing coat from inside the flue. Where cracks run through many tiles, or tiles are missing or offset, repair is usually not practical and the flue is relined.

Relining generally means a new continuous liner, often metal, running the full height of the flue and connected at both ends. CSIA's guidance after a chimney fire is to sweep and then carry out an internal video inspection; that recording is what shows which of the two routes the flue needs.

Tell us what is connected to the flue, and whether there has been a chimney fire or an earthquake since it was last checked. Estimates cost nothing — describe the job and we will come back to you.

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When a furnace or water heater vents into the same chimney

Where an older Burbank house has a gas furnace or water heater venting into a masonry flue, sometimes one originally built for something else, the liner faces a second kind of wear. Gas combustion produces water vapour, and in a flue that is too large or too cold it condenses on the tile. That condensate is mildly acidic and wears away mortar joints from the inside.

A damaged liner here is a carbon monoxide question as much as a fire one. The US Fire Administration advises CO alarms on every level of the home and outside each sleeping area. If a CO alarm sounds, get everyone out of the house and call 911 from outside.

What affects the cost of liner work on a Burbank chimney

Repair versus reline is the biggest variable. Beyond it: the height of the flue and how many bends it has; the shape and size of the existing tile, which limits what fits inside; whether the smoke chamber also needs work to meet a new liner; whether an appliance flue needs its own liner; and how easy the roof is to work on, since relining is done largely from above.

Common questions

Chimney Liner Repair in Burbank: questions

Sometimes near the bottom, with a strong torch past the open damper, or near the top from the roof. The long middle of the flue usually cannot be seen at all without a camera, which is why liner problems are so often found only during a Level 2 inspection.

Other things homeowners ask are covered on the FAQ page.

Burbank, CA

More for Burbank

Start from the Burbank service area, or read the market-wide page on chimney liner repair.

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Related work

chimney liner installationChimney Liner Installation
having the chimney looked at properlyChimney Inspection
removing hardened creosoteCreosote Removal
parging a rough smoke chamberSmoke Chamber Repair

Background reading

References

Requirements and designations change, and they vary by address. These are the authorities to confirm with rather than a statement of what applies to your property.

Free estimates

Chimney liner repair in Burbank: tell us what you are seeing

Call, or send a short description and request an estimate. Estimates cost nothing.

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