Black Stain

Tom Hinds · 06-10-2014, 06:09 AM

Hell everyone. I'm an inspector in training and have been doing a number of inspections for practice. In one house there's a metal flue for a wood burning stove running through a framed chimney. When in the attic I observed a black stain on the OSB on one side. The stain is at the same height as a junction where two pieces of metal flue are joined.

I'm assuming the correct thing to do would be note this in the inspection report and suggest further evaluation by a chimney sweep.

But I'm curious if anyone else has come across this. I'll try to include a picture.

Tom

**Scott Patterson** · 06-10-2014, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by Tom Hinds

Hell everyone. I'm an inspector in training and have been doing a number of inspections for practice. In one house there's a metal flue for a wood burning stove running through a framed chimney. When in the attic I observed a black stain on the OSB on one side. The stain is at the same height as a junction where two pieces of metal flue are joined.

I'm assuming the correct thing to do would be note this in the inspection report and suggest further evaluation by a chimney sweep.

But I'm curious if anyone else has come across this. I'll try to include a picture.

Tom

Hell of a first post, Tom!

Welcome....

A photo would help. Try to never or very seldom use the phrase "further evaluation" this tends to leave a bad taste in your clients wallet, so to speak. They are paying us to figureout the problem. Once we do that, then recommend for whoever to repair, correct, or replace whatever to take care of the problem. This does not mean we need to design the repair!

It sounds like this might be a flashing problem. Black stains on OSB tend to mean that water is seeping in from some where. Normally a wood stove if it is leaking creosote, it will have a very dark brown to rusty looking color. Black could also mean it is getting too hot, in this case it is basically charcoal!

**John Kogel** · 06-10-2014, 07:31 AM

What Scott said. 'Black stain" is too vague. You need to look close and get a camera in there. Then determine if it is soot, charcoal, or mould from a water leak.
If it is coming from the seam in the pipe, ok it is likely soot from wood smoke, then call for the pipes to be replaced. Also add that it is a fire hazard. What Scott said, try to go beyond evaluation to 'repair this defect'.

You can use 'black stain' when describing something, but in the context that you know what type of stain it is.

Tom Hinds · 06-10-2014, 03:58 PM

I tried to include a photo but is didn't work. I clicked on "upload photo" and then put the photo in the page that came up. I assumed that the photo would go along with the text but it didn't.

Tom