Chimney Liner Repair in Pasadena

The liner keeps heat and combustion gases inside the flue and away from the brick and any timber built close to it. A gap lets both through. Heat reaching framing is a fire risk, and flue gas escaping through the masonry can carry carbon monoxide into the house.

That is why a damaged liner means the fireplace stays out of use until it is dealt with. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone out and call 911; the USFA recommends CO alarms outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home.

A clay liner is a column of separate sections bedded on mortar, and shaking works on exactly those joints. The M6.7 Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994 is the event most people think of, but a liner in an older Pasadena chimney has been through many smaller ones as well, and each can open a joint or nudge a section out of line a little further.

None of that is visible from the firebox. A camera run is the only direct way to see it, and after any local shaking strong enough to move things on shelves, it is a reasonable threshold for looking. Where footage of an earlier scan exists, comparing the two is more useful than either on its own.

Isolated damage near the top of the flue can sometimes be repaired directly, by replacing the top section or re-mortaring joints that can be reached. Damage further down is harder to reach by hand.

Where the tiles are mostly intact but have cracks and open joints along their length, a resurfacing system can be applied inside the existing liner to close the gaps. It depends on the tile underneath being sound enough to hold it.

Where damage is widespread, the chimney was never lined, or a new insert or gas appliance needs a liner sized to it, the answer is relining with a stainless steel or cast-in-place liner, which is covered on the liner installation page.

Where a Pasadena chimney carries two flues side by side, for a second fireplace or an old furnace or water heater vent, the mortar between them is part of what keeps each flue separate. When it fails, smoke from one flue can come out of the other.

The tell is a smoke smell, or soot, in a room whose fireplace was not lit. It points at the liner and the partition between flues, not at the fireplace that smells.

The variables are the height of the flue, how many sections are damaged and where they sit, whether a resurfacing system suits the tile, the shape of the flue, whether heavy deposit has to be cleaned off before the tile can be assessed, and whether a change of appliance means relining instead. Any permit question is for the City of Pasadena's building department.