All About Liners
We recommend an annual chimney inspection for many important reasons. One of the most important is so that we can inspect the quality of your chimney’s liner. The liner protects the exterior wall of your chimney.
Santa's Friend Chimney Service Blog
Keep the Water Out
Keep A Focus On Keeping Water Out Of Your Chimney
Along with having your chimney inspected every year and making regular chimney sweeping appointments to stay ahead of creosote, taking precautions to fight off encroaching water is one of the most important things you can do to keep your chimney system trouble-free.
Call us today and lets start making sure your chimney is working at its optimal level.
A healthy amount of the time, when Santa’s Friend Chimney Service is called in with a chimney repair need, water is the culprit behind the damage. That’s partly because water can so easily take advantage of even the smallest chink in your chimney’s armor, slipping into the tiniest crack or gap and then, during cold snaps, expanding as it freezes and making a small problem into a big one. The fact that moisture is almost omnipresent in Central Mississippi doesn’t help either — moisture, over time, can just wear at masonry and metal.
But something to consider, too, is prevention. A lot of times, we don’t think about moisture’s effects on our chimney system until we’re dealing with a leak. But a few key things can help you minimize leaks and moisture damage — or even avoid them altogether.
Make Sure You Have A Properly Sized And Installed Chimney Cap
A chimney cap isn’t just adornment (though it does make a chimney look nicer and more finished). It helps to keep precipitation from coming directly into your flue opening, and slowly wearing away at the flue liner or masonry. If your cap is damaged or missing, Santa’s Friend can install a new chimney cap that’ll bring much-needed protection to your flue.
Consider Chimney Waterproofing
We highly recommend Chimney Saver’s chimney waterproofing sealant. It stops water from penetrating your masonry, but still allows that masonry to expel vapors from its interior, as it was designed to. That protection not only helps you avoid leaks, but adds to your masonry’s longevity too (and in that, minimizes your headaches). Santa’s Friend techs can tell you more about this product, and apply it to your chimney.
Remember When We Mentioned Chimney Inspections?
Keeping up with your annual inspections is key to minimizing chimney leak problems. It’s not uncommon for the parts of your system designed to fend off water — like the chimney crown at the top of your flue or the flashing installed where the chimney and the roofline meet — to develop small imperfections. Your crown may crack under the strain of sun and rain, and the caulking around your flashing can loosen or come off. When you have your chimney inspected regularly, Santa’s Friend can catch those small issues before they get worse, and make the repairs to avoid a serious leak.
If you have any worries about moisture getting into your chimney, call Santa’s Friend. We’re always here to help with information, service, repairs, installations — anything you might need for the care and maintenance of your chimney system.
Your Chimney Liner’s Job
Your Chimney Liner Is An MVP
A chimney liner’s name doesn’t necessarily accurately convey the heavy lifting it does, or its supremely important role in your chimney system. We usually think of liners as add-ons — the shelf liners in our cabinets make things look a little cleaner, our jacket liners make things a little more comfortable, but it is different with chimney liners. If the chimney industry was going to be a little more clear about the importance of the chimney liner, we might call them chimney suits of armor for their protective properties, or chimney foremen for how they make the system work well.
The Chimney liner defends the exterior of your chimney wall from too much heat.
Overall, from the vantage point here at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service, a clean, strong chimney liner is definitely an MVP.
What Your Chimney Liner Does
If we were to boil it down, the chimney liner was developed to solve three key problems with chimney systems: the heavy wear-and-tear of heat and moisture on masonry; the susceptibility of building materials behind that masonry to heat and moisture; and the impeded draft that comes with inconsistencies in damaged flues.
First, your chimney liner provides protection. Whether your liner is made of terra cotta clay or stainless steel, it stands up to heat from your fire and potential moisture intrusion, allowing the masonry that makes up your chimney itself to stand stronger, longer. It also provides a needed extra layer of protection between the flammable beams and building materials in your walls behind the chimney, lessening the chances of a fire hazard.
Protection is just part of the chimney liner’s role, though. The liner also contributes immensely to performance, and draft. Air needs to flow smoothly up and out of your flue for the chimney to properly vent. If you think of your flue kind of like a straw, you’ll get a sense of why “smoothly” is so key. If you try to use a cracked straw, the pressure necessary to draw up becomes near impossible to create. The same kind of thing happens when cracks or gaps are present in your flue. A smooth, properly sized and intact flue liner creates a surface that encourages draft, and makes your chimney work more efficiently. (That’s part of why it’s so important to maintain your flue liner too, and to have damaged flue liners repaired or replaced as soon as possible.
A Flue Liner’s Size Is Important
A damaged clay tile liner is often the reason why Santa’s Friend Chimney Service technicians end up relining a chimney. But damage isn’t the only thing we look for when we’re inspecting a chimney system. A chimney needs to have a clean and intact liner in order to function correctly, but that liner also needs to be the right size. A flue that’s too big or too small for the appliance it’s venting will result in poor draft, increased byproducts and other issues.
To resize an incorrectly sized flue, we’ll install a stainless steel liner. These are great products that will last through years and years of use (when installed by a professional, most carry lifetime warranties).
If you have any questions about what a flue liner does, or what the process of relining or liner repair is like, Santa’s Friend is always willing to help. Give us a call with any questions, or to book an appointment with our experienced technicians!