Chimney Safety
The safety of your chimney depends a lot on your chimney liner. Felgemacher Masonry & Chimney provides chimney liner repair and installation services throughout Western New York including Buffalo NY, Rochester NY, Amherst NY, Hamburg NY, Greece NY, Town of Tonawanda NY, Clarence NY, Orchard Park NY and other local cities and towns.
What kind of shape is your chimney liner in? If you’re like most homeowners, you’re not exactly sure. Because the liner is almost completely hidden from view, it’s not likely you would know its condition without a trained, professional chimney sweep to perform a thorough chimney inspection.
Why the Condition of Your Chimney Liner Matters
Most liners are made from clay tiles, aluminum, stainless steel or a poured-in-place compound. Many factors affect how well a liner holds up over the years, but one thing is certain: no liner will last forever. Minor chimney liner damage, although often unseen, can start a cycle of problems that can end with a major chimney fire or house fire. If a liner is cracked or otherwise damaged, the chimney masonry as well as combustible parts of the home adjacent to the chimney become highly vulnerable.
Main Functions of Chimney Liners
Chimney liners reduce fire risk. Liners serve as a shield to keep high heat from contacting combustibles. One test by the National Bureau of Standards found that heat moved so rapidly through an unlined chimney that nearby woodwork started burning in less than four hours.
Chimney liners protect masonry. Liners safely contain byproducts of combustion that include highly acidic flue gasses that are capable of eating away at mortar joints within the chimney’s interior. Over time, this can lead to a chimney collapse and severe damage to the home.
Chimney liners increase fireplace efficiency. Fireplaces, wood inserts, as well as boilers, furnaces, wood stoves and other appliances, work optimally when they’re connected to the proper-sized venting flue. When the right size liner inside the flue makes a perfect match with the appliance, air flows into the fire at the optimal rate, resulting in less smoke, less creosote buildup and less carbon monoxide, which can poison people and animals.
Chimney Liner Repair & Installation
Felgemacher Masonry & Chimney performs many chimney liner inspections and lots of repair work in the Buffalo NY and Rochester NY areas. When caught early, liner damage often can be fixed to prevent some serious and dangerous operating conditions down the line. For clay liners, the HeatShield repair system, which we use regularly, produces excellent results.
After an inspection, we may determine that your liner should be replaced. In this case, we’ll recommend a premium chimney lining system made from durable stainless steel that comes with a lifetime warranty.
Keep Your Chimney Safe
Our dedicated team has only one goal: to keep your chimney, your home and your family safe. Along with chimney liner inspection, repair and installation, we offer the following services performed by highly skilled technicians:
- Chimney sweep
- Masonry repair & tuckpointing
- Complete chimney rebuilding
- Chimney obstruction removal
- Fireplace damper repair
- Chimney crown rebuilding
- Chimney cap repair
and much more.
If you don’t know what condition your chimney liner is in, maybe it’s time to have a Felgemacher chimney expert take a look. We work throughout the entire Buffalo NY and Rochester NY regions including all Buffalo neighborhoods, the Elmwood Village neighborhood and others. Call (716) 907-4914 in and around Buffalo or (585) 308-4914 in Rochester and nearby communities.