Freddy wrote:Food for thought.... you say the chimney does work now, even though it's a bit surprising because gut instinct says it should be taller. Granting that it's an outside chimney, you are considering choosing to take 2 or 3 feet of it out of the heat? I'm voting to do nothing. IF you move the thimble up, because now 3 feet is cold instead of warm, it's possible that you change it from a chimney that works to a chimney that doesn't perform as it once did.
Thanks to all of you who gave detailed instructions on the thimble, and those who suggested looking at alternatives, vs. changing the thimble. Never thought about the impact on the over flue height from raising the thimble. This is what I love about this forum!!!dcrane wrote:Great advise here... as lightning says, if you have vertical rise now I would have a hard time punching through for a new thimble, having said that... its not as hard as you may think and that other guy gave the proper way to attack this job by drilling and punching (everything gets cemented back in so it will look and function just fine). LOL @ the guy who sayed lower the floor (this had me rolling in laughter )
...There are some easy options to extend the height of the chimney and then put a gosh darn cap over the terra cotta! You have a GREAT chimney & liner (arguably the best money and labor can buy!). Better yet cap the whole square to protect the cement between the brick and the terra cotta (or is you have the chimney extended have the mason build an arch as a cap (either would look fantastic with your style home).
dcrane, thanks for your comments on the chimney. Can't tell from these pix but the brick is a weathered colonial red. If I can find a mason who knows what he's doing with chimneys, I'll have him look at the whole deal, with an eye to raising chimney height, capping/arching (I agree the arch would look cool) and, maybe, redoing the thimble too. Hopefully we can find the same or matching brick as any "patched" look would be deal-breaker with the CEO (that would be Mrs. MarkV of course ).