Dangerous Chimney Dilemna

Originally Posted by Morning Wood

Forget about the chimney. I would be more worried about how the house was able to move 6" friggin inches away from the chimney. something is wrong with the house and that should be looked into.

Originally Posted by The Boss

My clients chimney has pulled away from the house by about 6" at the roof line. It appears the house has settled away from the chimney. The house sits on a steep hill and the chimney is unreinforced brick with a stucco veneer. She is also located on the Hayward Fault.

The client is adamant about keeping her chimney working. I was going to remove the flue to the firebox and put a stainless pipe up so the chimney could still work, but the permitting office is no longer issuing permits to rebuild wood burning chimneys due to woodsmoke concerns.

Now I have concluded that the only course of action is to strap the flue to the house and pray. This will prevent the chimney from tumbling into the adjacent house and hopefully make it just a big pile of bricks during an earthquake. Strapping does bring up one more concern though which is if the house continues to move will it actually break the chimney and cause premature failure.

Anyone with any experience have an opinion or alternative, I would love to hear it.

Thanks

Joe