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She Won't Sweep the Stovepipe
allen griggs
Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
I went to get my income taxes done the other day. The tax lady lives in a hundred year old farm house up here in the NC mountains. Her CPA office is in the basement. She is about 83 years old.
When I went into the house, on the main floor, I was hit with a strong smell of wood smoke. I went down into the basement where her tax office was. There in the corner was a giant wood stove.
It looked like a Fisher Papa Bear on steroids.
Not granny's stove but what is is modeled after, a Fisher Papa Bear.
I asked her about her stove. She said a local welder made it for her many years ago. This guy did a good job and this was a really good looking wood stove.
I noticed the 6 inch pipe went through the concrete block wall, and went into a concrete block stack outside. Since the basement really smelled like smoke, I asked her when she swept the pipe.
She said, "Nosir, those bricks will bang up that steel liner."
Well, I knew right away what she was talking about. I have studied up on stove use in the old days. Back in London 200 years ago everybody had a coal stove. To sweep the pipe, you climbed up on the roof. You tied three bricks together and tied them to a rope. You lowered the bricks down the chimney 3 or 4 times and the bricks banged against the flue and knocked the creosote off.
Since she referred to the "steel liner" I knew that she had run a 6 inch steel pipe inside the masonry stack outside.
I said to her, "Have you ever heard of sweeping the chimney with a brush? A guy climbs up on the roof and sweeps out the chimney witha round 6 inch stove pipe brush, on a long fiberglass rod."
Granny looked at me like I was crazy. She had never heard of a chimney brush.
I told her "You need to sweep your chimney once a year with a brush or you are liable to have a chimney fire. Also your house wouldn't be filled with smoke."
Granny didn't want to hear a word I had to say. She told me that the chimnney didn't need sweeping, that the creosote fell down the stack in big chunks, and every summer she got a young man to come over, he would disconnect the stove pipe from the wall, and pull out the big chunks of creosote that had fallen down the pipe.
To me this was a bizarre conversation. This lady is stuck with a technology that is 200 years old and has no interest in learning the right way to keep up a wood stove. On paper she is intelligent, because she has a CPA license, but in matters of the wood stove she is stupid.
When I went into the house, on the main floor, I was hit with a strong smell of wood smoke. I went down into the basement where her tax office was. There in the corner was a giant wood stove.
It looked like a Fisher Papa Bear on steroids.
Not granny's stove but what is is modeled after, a Fisher Papa Bear.
I asked her about her stove. She said a local welder made it for her many years ago. This guy did a good job and this was a really good looking wood stove.
I noticed the 6 inch pipe went through the concrete block wall, and went into a concrete block stack outside. Since the basement really smelled like smoke, I asked her when she swept the pipe.
She said, "Nosir, those bricks will bang up that steel liner."
Well, I knew right away what she was talking about. I have studied up on stove use in the old days. Back in London 200 years ago everybody had a coal stove. To sweep the pipe, you climbed up on the roof. You tied three bricks together and tied them to a rope. You lowered the bricks down the chimney 3 or 4 times and the bricks banged against the flue and knocked the creosote off.
Since she referred to the "steel liner" I knew that she had run a 6 inch steel pipe inside the masonry stack outside.
I said to her, "Have you ever heard of sweeping the chimney with a brush? A guy climbs up on the roof and sweeps out the chimney witha round 6 inch stove pipe brush, on a long fiberglass rod."
Granny looked at me like I was crazy. She had never heard of a chimney brush.
I told her "You need to sweep your chimney once a year with a brush or you are liable to have a chimney fire. Also your house wouldn't be filled with smoke."
Granny didn't want to hear a word I had to say. She told me that the chimnney didn't need sweeping, that the creosote fell down the stack in big chunks, and every summer she got a young man to come over, he would disconnect the stove pipe from the wall, and pull out the big chunks of creosote that had fallen down the pipe.
To me this was a bizarre conversation. This lady is stuck with a technology that is 200 years old and has no interest in learning the right way to keep up a wood stove. On paper she is intelligent, because she has a CPA license, but in matters of the wood stove she is stupid.
Comments
Like You Commin' Along And Telling Her What She Should And Shouldnt
Do maybe She Likes the Smell Of Hot Creosote Ya Never Know[;)]
I have a low tolerance for ignorant people. I may respect them a bit more if they are old, but I won't tolerate them.
I would find a way to change this old bat's mind, for her sake if no one else's.
My wife is a CPA, book smart as all get out, but on the practical side
not so much in some things....
It's been said, you can always tell a CPA, you just can't tell them much[8D]
I got up on a very cold Sunday morning. There was a Steeler game on at 1pm and I wanted to get a fire going early.So I grabbed some cardboard and a few pieces of kindling,lit it up.It made a pretty big flame in the fireplace but I wasn't worried.Then all the sudden it started making a roar that sounded like a turbine engine getting ready for takeoff.My wife starts screaming "What is that awfull noise? I said "I don't want to tell you but I think I caught the chimney on fire!!!"
The panic set in and I scrambled for fire extinquishers.I have them placed throughout the house and garage.I blast the first one right into the fireplace.It slows the fire down briefly but as soon as it runs out the fire is back full strength.I run outside grab 3 more from the garage.Put the extension ladder up and go on the roof.I blasted all 3 down the chimney and the fire goes out.Now I've got a major clean up job as there is white powder all through the room.But the fire is out.
I have a friend with the chimney brushes. I called him to borrow them.I'm telling the story and he asks "Why did you put the fire out?" I said because it scared the crap out of me.Then he tells me that years ago it was common to fill the firebox with newspaper and light it to burn/clean out the flue pipe.THE TRICK IS TO DO IT IN THE WINTER WHEN YOU HAVE SNOW ON THE ROOF!!! (Which it was and I did)
Now you have to have a good chimney and flue pipe.Or the cracks may ignite the interior wall of your house.Snow on the roof keeps the embers from catching the roof on fire.
Next time I'm gonna let it burn.Of course I'll do it when my wife isn't home!!!
probably flu block with a terra cotta liner then stainless steel.
my flu is on the outside wall of my house and is flu block with the terra cotta liner with cement between the two
I had one flu fire and it never as much as cracked the liner
A few times a month I open up the stove door just a crack, and have a chimney fire on purpose. Cleans things out nicely.
If you do that more frequently, you do not have a chimney fire, because you keep it burned out.
Our stove runs 24/7 through the winter months. During the deepest part of the winter, we "burn the stack off" every day. This time of year, as it's getting warmer, the fire sometimes goes out during the day. Even now the stack gets burned a minimum of three times a week.
This is in addition th cleaning the stack 2-4 times per season. This is first year I have not been able to get up on the roof to clean the stack, due to health reasons.
Ten years a new neighbor moved in up here. He was a Florida Yankee from Buffalo NY by way of Ft. Lauderdale.
Well, Frank grew up in Buffalo, in the city, but moved to Florida when he was 20 and had lived there for 25 years, so he didn't know anything about wood stoves.
And I also discovered, the Florida Yankee is "Mr. Know it All" and doesn't want to be told anything by someone else, especially he doesn't want to learn the time of day from a Southerner like me.
So Frank bought a big log house that had a fireplace. He was going to install a wood stove in the fireplace.
I told Frank that I had a great book on wood stoves and that I would get one for him. And here it is:
Solid Fuels Encyclopedia is a great book on the different heating values of different types of firewood. Also it gives all the specs on an install, such as, installing heat shields, types of stove pipe, distance from combustibles, installing a fire-proof hearth, all in accordance with the national building and fire codes. This book is a treasure trove of info for the rookie wood stove owner.
I found this book on Amazon and bought a copy for fifteen bucks and I gave Frank that book. I told Frank that this book would show him how to install his new wood stove.
That was in the summer. In October I had heard that Frank had installed his new wood stove. On the second chilly day in October, I was coming back from the grocery store and I saw a monster plume of smoke coming from our mountain top. I raced up to the top, thank God went past the drive to my house, because my wood stove was running, and headed on up to Frank's house.
That house was completely engulfed in flames. I called the fire dept but it was no use Frank's house burned to the ground.
A week later I read the report from the Fire Chief, it said, "CAUSE OF FIRE IMPROPER WOOD STOVE INSTALLATION"
This was the second time that Frank had lit his new wood stove. He stoked it up at 8am and went to work, at 9 am his house burned down.
A few weeks later I ran into Frank at the mailbox and I asked him if he had ever gotten the chance to read that wood stove book that I had given him. He said "No I never read that book. It burned up in the fire."
.
Sounded like a freight train was rolling through!
Scary...