Both of us were raised in homes with fireplaces so there is something comforting and familiar to both of us about having a hearth and mantle, but in the 15 years we have had the house we have never once used our fireplace. Originally we wanted to have the chimney inspected before we used it. It looked like it could use some re-pointing and neither of us really trusted it. We put it on the list and there it sat. One of the challenges with a traditional open fire is that they suck the air from the room and send it up the chimney. In one of our houses as a child i remember being aware of the aircurents when the fireplace was being used. Another concern of course is air quality and while fires smell great and have an undeniable almost instinctive appeal, they pump a lot of particulates into the atmosphere. Vancouver, like many communities is moving towards greater restrictions on woodburning fireplaces and the trend is unlikely to change anytime soon.
More than a decade ago we considered a high efficiency wood burning insert but were put off by the cost at the time. There was also the expense and mess of buying and keeping a stack of firewood dry in our climate. We still might consider this option but will not need our big masonry chimney to do it. Our more likely route will be to replace it with a gas or electric fireplace. According to some of the blogs i have read, a fireplace of some sort adds value to a home. Gas is more appealing to me personally (real flames) but as an environmentalist, i am conflicted about the CO2 emissions. We live in a province where most of our electricity comes from hydro so the Greta approved option would be an electric fireplace. We’ll have to see what we decide.
When we bought the house the furnace and hot water were both vented through the chimney. We replaced the furnace immediately as it was a big old inefficient beast. Our new furnace is a modern, high efficiency model vented through our wall. In early 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, our 15+ year old “10 year” water tank went through a few days of supplying rusty water. We took this as a sign and replaced it with an on demand natural gas water heater which is also vented through the wall. We had already started planning the renovation and we both fell in love with the concept and convenience of on demand water heaters while travelling so it made sense. We would have preferred to wait and do it as part of the reno, but after years of being penny wise and pound foolish as my granny used to say, we just took the leap (I might blog about what we learned about that later.) to avoid pushing our luck only to end up with a flooded basement.
So now the chimney is not serving any useful purpose. I am not certain it would even be possible to replace the foundation without removing the chimney and if it was, i am certain it would add to the expense as it would have to be underpinned and worked around. It would likely eliminate any possibility of raising the house level and we would have to dig down farther.
We googled and contacted 6 local chimney companies in the fall to get quotes on removall. The scope is to take down the chimney to below the roofline, patch the roof and reshingle. We sent them the scope via email or web forms since we still have day jobs. One company did not reply at all. I guess they have lots of work. One called to learn more but was worried about making our roof warranty invalid and suggested we contact our roofing company. From previous discussions about repairs and flashing as part of the re-roofing, we knew that they contracted out the work anyway. One who responded did not show up to look at our project and eventually stopped returning my emails. Of the three quotes we got the experiences were quite different.
- I heard a knock on my door and went downstairs to find a quote shove through our mail slot. I opened the door and the guy was half way down the block already back to his truck. Yes the weather wasn’t great but our porch is covered and he could have waited and at least said hello from a COVID safe distance. His quote was $1700
- The mason arrived and met with me to look at and discuss the chimney. He asked about our project and our plans and gave a few recommendations about who he had worked with on house lifts etc. His concern was the small space between us and our neighbours and indicated that he would have to use scaffolding. He followed up with an email with a detailed scope of work at $2700
- The mason called and looked at our house on Google street view. Took me a while to realize he was talking about our neighbours house at first. Once we got that sorted he also brought up the need for scaffolding. He followed up with a quote for $2800.
We decided to go with the 2nd mason. All three of the companies that provided quotes have good online reputations (for what that’s worth) but it came down to him just being a better salesperson. He showed up. He asked questions, he provided some tips, and he showed interest in what we were doing. His quote had the most detail and he gave us the most confidence.
The benefit of 3 quotes is that it seems obvious that the first estimate missed something that the other two got. He was the only one of the three that did not mention that scaffolding would be needed.
At the time, the mason we selected indicated that he was booking into March. Our mistake was that i didn’t ask if he needed a deposit. Despite knowing that we were moving down this path and that the chimney was going to come out, i did not book it back in September because we were still working on our financing and had a few other expenses coming up so i didn’t want to have to write a big cheque. When i contacted him to book in December i was told that they would add us to the schedule and that a deposit wasn’t needed. They would contact me in the spring when it was closer to the time to take it out.
Hmm..
What if they forget about me? When is my chimney coming down? In contract law providing “consideration’ is part of what makes a contract legal. All i have is an email saying “great! I’ll see you in the spring!”. As i am planning on taking down the chimney inside the house i have no idea when to plan that for. If i don’t have time to do it myself it will have a pretty big impact on the budget.
Not worried at all….
Is this mistake 1?
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