So i had to get my water heater replaced and the tech that intalled it gave me a violation and told me that i needed a chimney liner. - doubled checked afterwards and realized the water heater and furance exhausts directly outside and the fireplace is wood burning. Can anybody tell me if this sounds up to code and no violations? Thx
chimney liners and water heater hoiusing code
- Thread starter pokergod
- Start date
I think you've been had. Was this installed by a private company? I know that the old ABS piping has to be changed to a new form of vent piping, (system ???), but should be done free of charge when having a new install done. As long as the old ABS is not cracked, it is fine and if cracked, it should be replaced free of charge if you are renting the equipment.
Were you originally with Direct Energy/Enbridge and do you have a different gas supplier? Was he talking about a chimney liner for your wood burning stove? I'm a little confused. 
What's it lined with now? Have you checked Section 9.21.3 of the Building Code Act?
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_060350_e.htm
Maybe if your chimney is not in use you can have it sealed up? That I wouldn't know.
What kind of venting comes off the furnace and water heater, plastic or metal? If they are both metal vent pipes going up the chimney, he may be correct. If they are plastic venting going out the side wall, then you've been had. Gas technicians should have nothing to do with wood burning fireplaces, unless they are all in the same chimney, which they used to do many years ago. And in that case, you'd need separate liners for the gas and wood burning appliances.
Without more details, its hard to know for sure if you've been had or not.
Without more details, its hard to know for sure if you've been had or not.
they are metal pipes comming off the furnance and water heater. They are routed right thru the concrete foundation into a vent outside. The fireplace is wood burnign and my assumption is that they already have a liner.
First off - if the house was constructed correctly, even 100 years ago, there would be separate flues for the fireplace and the water heater / furnace in the masonry chimney. The wood fireplace will have one flue in the brick chimney dedicated to it. The furnace and the water tank will share the other flue.
The fireplace would not necessarily have a liner. (It doesn't need one if it's an open fireplace.) It may at the very top have a clay liner sticking out and that is fine.
The flue assembly you describe is I believe a conventional vent set up. You have a metal flue coming off of the water tank and a metal flue coming off of the furnace and they join together BEFORE they exit the foundation wall in what is called a "Y Tee assembly". (In other words, both metal flues join together and meld into 1 pipe which then goes through the foundation wall and up the chimney.)
All natural gas appliances must have chimney liners. This is mandated by the Natural Gas Code (not the building code -sigh) Chimney liners are required because when natural gas combusts one of the byproducts of combustion is water in vapour form (the other being CO2 and CO). If you have a brick chimney without a liner, the water vapour will penetrate the brick and the mortar of the masonry chimney, then in the winter months, it will freeze, expand and blow apart the structure of your chimney.
Chimney liners are usually stainless steel.
Chimney liners MUST MUST MUST be properly sized according to the BTUs of the appliances feeding into them. A chimney liner that is too big is just as bad as one that is too small.
You cannot buy a chimney liner even if you wanted to without your Gas Fitter's ticket.
The tech was not scamming you.
If you are exhausting through a metal pipe up a masonry chimney, you definitely need a chimney liner.
The above picture shows a typical masonry chimney where you can clearly see that the flue on the left is a completely separate flue and exhausts a woodburning fireplace. The flue on the right is properly linered and exhausts a conventional furnace and hot water tank.
The fireplace would not necessarily have a liner. (It doesn't need one if it's an open fireplace.) It may at the very top have a clay liner sticking out and that is fine.
The flue assembly you describe is I believe a conventional vent set up. You have a metal flue coming off of the water tank and a metal flue coming off of the furnace and they join together BEFORE they exit the foundation wall in what is called a "Y Tee assembly". (In other words, both metal flues join together and meld into 1 pipe which then goes through the foundation wall and up the chimney.)
All natural gas appliances must have chimney liners. This is mandated by the Natural Gas Code (not the building code -sigh) Chimney liners are required because when natural gas combusts one of the byproducts of combustion is water in vapour form (the other being CO2 and CO). If you have a brick chimney without a liner, the water vapour will penetrate the brick and the mortar of the masonry chimney, then in the winter months, it will freeze, expand and blow apart the structure of your chimney.
Chimney liners are usually stainless steel.
Chimney liners MUST MUST MUST be properly sized according to the BTUs of the appliances feeding into them. A chimney liner that is too big is just as bad as one that is too small.
You cannot buy a chimney liner even if you wanted to without your Gas Fitter's ticket.
The tech was not scamming you.
If you are exhausting through a metal pipe up a masonry chimney, you definitely need a chimney liner.
The above picture shows a typical masonry chimney where you can clearly see that the flue on the left is a completely separate flue and exhausts a woodburning fireplace. The flue on the right is properly linered and exhausts a conventional furnace and hot water tank.
Not correct.
He is renting the tank, not the chimney, nor the chimney liner. The chimney and the chimney liner belong to the house.
Thanks J T K for clarifying this. I was under the assumption that he had the direct motor vented hot water heater out the side of the house with PVC/ABS type piping. Are they not replacing this and is it not covered on a new install of a rented hot water tank?
