Thread: single wall extravaganza

100+ year old row house in Philadelphia.
The single wall vent from the gas furnace and water heater in the basement passes through the fireplace hearth and heads up the chimney, out of sight, for three more floors. I couldn't get to the roof to see what it was like up there. I could see daylight next to the vent when I looked up from the fireplace.

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VERY CREATIVE! And a hell of a lot of work to install. I wonder if they lowered it down from the top or built it from the bottom and kept shoving it up as they added sections? Do you put the cap on first? On second thought, if you leave the end open it will scrape the creosote off the chimney walls as it goes up and accomplish two jobs at once! A bit messy but that's what shop vacs are for.

Did you at least wright up yhe fact that you could see day light up through the top and recommend futher evaluation?Roy.

Originally Posted by Roy Summerville

Did you at least wright up yhe fact that you could see day light up through the top and recommend futher evaluation?Roy.

I wrote the whole dang thing up, Roy!

Philly is full of similar excursions into the Twilight Zone. Often, they will brick up the Fp opening then stuff a pipe into the ash dump and hope it finds its way out. I've found several cases where they lined the chimney with 12" sections of homemade pipe connected with just two steel screws. The joints are so loose the whole thing resembles a centipede, except having much larger gaps btw sections. When the screws corrode away, sections drop where they block the flue. I did one up near the Art Museum (Rocky's steps) where the fireplace was still being used with the slinky from below similar to the pics John posted. However, once it got to the second floor, the flue opened to a warm air register into the room! Yes, the fireplace gases would vent right into that room. The heater slinky continued on to the top of the crumbling chimney. I relined the fireplace & installed vented logs. I ran B-vent out the wall and up the side of the house.

All sorts of monsters lurking in them holes...
Bob