Thread: Main beam extends into chimey

I was in the basement looking at the cleanouts of a chimney.

I reached my camera in the basement cleanout for the first floor fireplace.

The picture showed the ends of the main beam extending into the chimney several inches. It looked about 3 inches shy of the ash pit door. The wood was yellow where it could be seen.

The house is from 1968.

Have any of you seen this before? How unusual is this? What kind of comments would you have?

Thanks in advance.

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Originally Posted by Tom King

I was in the basement looking at the cleanouts of a chimney.

I reached my camera in the basement cleanout for the first floor fireplace.

The picture showed the ends of the main beam extending into the chimney several inches. It looked about 3 inches shy of the ash pit door. The wood was yellow where it could be seen.

The house is from 1968.

Have any of you seen this before? How unusual is this? What kind of comments would you have?

Thanks in advance.

.
Hi Tom,

Could you share that picture with us ?.

With any luck the link works...

err, I need to learn how to post pictures.

Well, uploading a photo is quite easy...

I would report it. It seems to be surviving just fine.

I would suggest they install a fireplace insert, wood-burning or gas, to help make sure nothing bad happens there in the future. That's a new one for me. Nice catch.

Originally Posted by John Kogel

I would report it. It seems to be surviving just fine.

I would suggest they install a fireplace insert, wood-burning or gas, to help make sure nothing bad happens there in the future. That's a new one for me. Nice catch.

I reported it. In fact, I pretty much said what you just did. I'm wondering if this was a common practice but for me, it was first as well.

I am not normally an alarmist but that would scare me! One of the things that I would have to put at the top of my nightmare list is seeing a home I inspected on the 6 o'clock news and on fire.

What if someone used the clean out repeatedly, without cleaning out the ash, then shoved a bunch of still burning coals in that could contact that wood?

I've never seen a fireplace used as framing support and don't think it is code accepted. It should not be a expensive fix to build another pier on the outside of the fireplace clean out, cut off the beam and seal the hole.

I was doing the framing inspection on a home that had had a fire, the whole house was stripped down to the studs. The rafters and ceiling joists were built into the masonry chimney (the fireplace was not the cause of the fire). The inspection was not approved until they were removed from chimney and 2" clearance was provided. The house was built in the late 60's

looks like someone was not useing the fireplace for fire and decided that it was a non issue. as long as the fireplace is not being used it is not going to be an issue but for safety reasons yup report it as you never know who is going to do what and when.

YOu should always take a picture pointing down in these areas also.
You may just see the bones of the guy who did that abortion.
If he was dumb enough to do that he may very well have sealed himself in there at the same time.
Good catch!
Digital, stick it in and shoot, gotta love it!

The beam is under the fireplace, separated from the fireplace by masonry and the pit is at least 7 feet below the beam pocket.

I don't see the problem? This is not an uncommon detail.
Does anyone have a code reference as to what they believe is a problem?

Originally Posted by Ken Amelin

The beam is under the fireplace, separated from the fireplace by masonry and the pit is at least 7 feet below the beam pocket.

I don't see the problem? This is not an uncommon detail.
Does anyone have a code reference as to what they believe is a problem?

.
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