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ks_toolgirl

chopped chimney, no support!

ks_toolgirl
13 years ago

Hi! Still new here, please have patience with me?

I have, easily, a hundred questions! I'll start with ONE, lol. We were 1st time home-buyers when we bought this old girl, about 12 years ago. She's about 100 years old, has 2 floors - that's about all I can tell you so far. She was a "flip" house, which was not a big deal to us at the time, but turned out to be a HUGE deal.The ground floor had been gutted & totally redone, we have NO clue as to the original floor plan. (2nd story was untouched by the "butchers". When they gutted the 1st floor, it seems they thought the chimney was in an awkward spot. So they removed the brick & mortar, ONLY below 1st floor ceiling level, put a square of plywood under it, and covered the fiasco with a dropped ceiling. Oh - in their defence, (not!), they did put a 2X4 in at a corner of plywood that wasn't "taking a load off", resting directly on the joists. We wanted to put a wood stove in and use existing chimney, but "stove contractors" located and looked at the existing chimney remains and said not only could they not use it, but couldn't figure out how ALL that weight is being supported! We rather thought at the time they were trying to find a way to get more $$ out of us. We're such silly fools.

We've since put in a (gasp!) pellet stove, in a different room - venting directly outside. The partial chimney, btw, is centrally located in the house - and goes from 1st floor ceiling thru 2nd floor and is visible from outside above roof. We thought before, "gee, we'll have to have that re-pointed!". Not as naïve now, but still more so than we'd like to think.

Has anyone had this issue, and are we (by "we" I mean DH, lol), less concerned than we (he!), ought to be?

I'm going to add pics when I figure out how. Won't take me too long, I promise.

Thanks!

S

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