Chimney services, Portland metro
Stainless chimney liners for unlined, cracked or oversized Portland flues
We install stainless chimney liners across the Portland metro, sized to the stove, insert or fireplace they serve, insulated when the install needs it, and finished with a new top plate and cap. The camera run that sizes the liner comes with it.
Updated
What you are seeing
A liner is usually the answer to one of these findings, most of them delivered by a camera or a home inspector rather than noticed from the couch.
- A camera inspection found cracked, shifted or missing clay tiles, or no tiles at all.
- You bought a wood stove or insert and the installer wants a liner before it goes in.
- Smoke stains or a hot wall above the fireplace while a fire is burning.
- A furnace was replaced with a high-efficiency unit and the old flue now serves only the water heater.
- Creosote glazes the flue every season no matter how dry the wood is.
What we do on a liner visit
A liner is only as good as its sizing and its connection, so the job starts with a camera and ends with a draft test, in this order.
Run the camera and measure the flue
The liner is sized before it is ordered, so the first visit is a Level 2 camera run from the firebox or the cleanout to the cap. We measure the inside of the flue, map offsets and the height from the appliance to the top, and photograph what is wrong with the existing flue: bare brick, cracked tiles, open joints.
Size the liner to the appliance
A stove or insert gets the flue diameter its maker specifies, matched to the collar, and an open fireplace gets a liner sized to the opening so smoke does not roll back. Oversized is as wrong as undersized: a flue too big for the fire runs cool, makes creosote and drafts poorly.
Clean the flue and clear the path
The old flue is swept to bare tile or brick before anything goes down it, and heavy creosote comes off first. Where the clay tiles leave too little room for an insulated liner, or an offset pinches it, the tiles are broken out from the top with a weighted head and the rubble is cleared from below. A damper frame in the way comes out.
Insulate it when the install calls for it
Wood-burning liners get an insulation wrap, or poured insulation around a rigid liner, when the flue runs up an outside wall or the chimney has framing close to the brick. Insulation keeps the flue gases hot so they draft and leave less creosote, and it keeps heat away from framing that may sit closer to the brick than the two inches the code now calls for.
Feed the liner and make the connection
The liner goes down from the top on a rope, with a nose cone to steer it past the smoke shelf, until it reaches the appliance. At the bottom it is clamped to a stove adapter, the insert's collar or a plate across the smoke chamber above an open fireplace, sealed with high-temperature sealant, so every bit of smoke enters the liner and nothing leaks behind it.
Fit the top plate and cap, then test the draft
At the top the liner is cut to length, clamped to a stainless top plate sealed to the crown, and finished with a storm collar and liner cap. We run a draft check, light a small test fire if the appliance is in, and send you the camera footage, the roof photos and a record of the liner size and alloy.
Three reasons a Portland flue gets a stainless liner
A Portland flue gets a stainless liner when it has no clay tile, when its tiles are cracked, shifted or missing, or when it is too large for a new stove or insert.
| The problem | How it shows up | What the liner does |
|---|---|---|
| A brick flue with no clay tile, found in many houses built before the 1930s | Bare brick and crumbly lime joints on the camera, creosote packed into them | Gives the smoke a smooth, sealed passage and keeps heat off the brick and framing |
| Cracked, shifted or missing clay tiles | Gaps and offsets on the camera, tile pieces on the smoke shelf | Bypasses the broken tile with a new flue inside the old one |
| A flue too large for a new stove or insert | A new appliance venting into the old open flue, sluggish draft, fast glazing | Sizes the flue to the appliance so it drafts hot and clean |
Flexible or rigid, insulated or bare: how we pick
A flexible liner suits an old Portland flue that bends, offsets or narrows; a rigid liner drafts a little better and is the pick for a straight, open flue.
Insulation is decided by the appliance and the chimney: a wood stove or insert in an exterior chimney, or one with framing close to the brick, gets wrapped, and a gas water heater flue may go in bare. The liner's listing and the appliance manual settle it, not habit.
The furnace flue your water heater was left holding
When a high-efficiency furnace is vented out a side wall in PVC, the old masonry flue is left serving a gas water heater alone, and that small appliance cannot keep a flue sized for two warm.
The exhaust cools, water condenses on the tile, and the acid in it eats the mortar joints from the inside; early signs include a damp stain on the chimney wall in the basement and flakes of tile in the cleanout.
The fix is a liner sized to the water heater alone, or a direct-vent water heater and a capped, retired flue. The guide on orphaned flues compares the two, and the water heater on that flue is a carbon monoxide source worth an alarm on the same floor.
A chimney liner may need a permit in Portland
A liner serving a wood stove or insert is part of an installation Portland requires a mechanical permit for, and a liner alone in an existing chimney may need one too. We say so before the job is booked, and suburbs set their rules.
What moves a chimney liner's price
The board price is a stainless liner in a straight flue with a top plate, cap and connection, and the items below are what raise it.
- A tall chimney, since the liner, the insulation and the time all run by the foot.
- An offset or a narrow flue that calls for tile removal before an insulated liner will fit.
- An insert that has to come out and go back in to reach the connection.
- A second liner for another flue in the same stack, priced on its own.
When a repair stops making sense
A liner beats another round of tile repair when the camera shows cracks in more than a tile or two, open joints down the flue, or bare brick: patching one tile from inside a flue is hard to make last.
A liner is the wrong fix when the stack above the roof is leaning or spalled through, because a new flue inside a failing chimney still falls with it. That chimney is rebuilt from sound brick first, with new tile or the liner set as part of the rebuild.
Liner: common questions
Does a chimney liner have to be insulated in Portland?
Not always, but a wood-burning liner usually is here. Insulation keeps the flue gases hot in a cold, wet exterior chimney so the stove drafts and glazes less, and it protects framing that may sit closer to the brick than today's two-inch rule. A liner for a gas water heater may go in bare; the liner's listing and the appliance manual decide.
Can a stainless liner go into an unlined 1910s brick chimney?
Yes, that is one of the usual reasons we install one. The camera run confirms the flue is open and the brick is sound enough to hold a liner, loose mortar is swept out, and an insulated liner goes down and connects at the firebox or stove. If the stack itself is failing, the rebuild comes first.
Why is a chimney liner sized to the stove and not the chimney?
Because the appliance sets how much smoke there is and how fast it needs to move. A stove collar of a given size wants a flue that matches it the whole way up; run it into a big open flue and the gases slow, cool and condense as creosote. The liner makes the flue the size the appliance was designed for.
Do the clay flue tiles have to come out before a chimney liner goes in?
Only when they leave too little room. A liner with insulation needs clearance all the way down, and old tiles with offsets or a small inside dimension can pinch it. In that case we break the tiles out from the top and clear the rubble from the cleanout, which adds a day.
Can a chimney liner fix a furnace flue that now only vents the water heater?
Yes, a liner sized to the water heater alone is the usual repair for an orphaned flue. The small liner keeps the exhaust warm enough to draft and keeps the acidic condensate off the old tile and mortar. The alternative is a direct-vent water heater and a capped, retired chimney, and the guide on orphaned flues compares the two.
Will a chimney liner stop my fireplace from smoking into the room?
It will when the smoke is rolling back because the flue is the wrong size or is leaking air through cracked tiles and open joints. It will not when the cause is a shallow smoke chamber, a damper that only opens partway or a house starved of makeup air. The camera run tells those apart before anyone orders a liner.
Related pages
Where we do this
We install chimney liners wherever the chips below point, from the pre-1930s brick flues of inner Portland to insert liners in Beaverton and Aloha.
Ready to book a sweep?
Call with what the fireplace is doing, or text a photo of the opening and one of the chimney top, and we will name the service and its posted price before we come out.