Watch out for homeowners who don't mention their 'repair' work

Last Tuesday I showed up at a house in Cleveland to do a routine sweep. The homeowner said he had fixed a crack in the flue tile himself a few months back. When I got up on the roof and looked inside, he had used regular duct tape and some kind of caulk. That tape was already peeling off and blocking the damper halfway. I had to call him up to show him before I could even start the job. Has anyone else run into folks trying to patch their own chimneys with stuff that just doesn't hold up?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_thomas8d ago

That duct tape and caulk combo is wild, but the spray foam story really makes you think. Did you happen to ask that homeowner why he thought regular duct tape would handle the heat from a chimney fire? I mean, it's not like that stuff is rated for anything above maybe 200 degrees on a good day. These flues can hit 1000 degrees or more during a heavy burn, and people just don't realize how fast things go wrong. It's almost like they think any sticky stuff from the hardware store will work. Makes you wonder how many other houses have ticking time bombs hidden behind a fresh coat of paint.

gavin4699d ago

Read a horror story on a different forum where a guy used spray foam to seal a chimney gap. Caught fire three months later and almost burned the house down. Duct tape and caulk is bad but at least it's not flammable like that. People really don't get how hot those flues get lol.