I’m starting to do a light remodel in my kitchen and part of the project includes removing the drywall from the chimney that goes up through the corner of the room. The idea is to expose the brick to add some character to the room. It is next to the stove (about 18" away with a counter top in between) which currently does not have a hood. This is a typical north Buffalo double.
While starting to pull drywall off we had the idea of installing a hood and adding the duct to go directly into the chimney. Both furnaces already use this chimney for exhaust so it’s not an unused part of the house. (Which from what I’ve read, is a good thing.)
A few questions:
Do I need to be worried about anything structural when making a ~4" diameter hole through the side of the chimney? (Any reinforcement necessary, etc)
Is it as simple as cutting into it, routing the exhaust and sealing it?
Would something like this violate any building codes?
Obviously, I need to be careful since this is a rental property and I won’t be living in it forever. I’m not too stubborn where I won’t pay someone to do it if it involves something extensive. Just trying to get a feel for what’s required. Let me know. If it gets too crazy I’ll just nix the idea but it would certainly be a nice feature to add to this boring kitchen. (And would help me stop setting off my smoke alarm so often.)
I would either get a vent less hood ( i have one and it works perfectly) or give the hood its own vent through the wall and outside. Being a typical n buffalo double the house is prob close to 100 years old if not more and I wouldn’t recommend doing anything to disturb the original chimney. You could cause the whole thing to shift and at the very least be forced to put in an expensive liner.
Going out through the wall isn’t an option since the stove sits right in the middle of the house against a load bearing wall.
I’m not sure it would upset much. Most of these houses use the original chimney to route furnace exhausts much in the same way that I’m thinking of doing this. Just didn’t know if they had to do anything extensive.
Those furnaces that are cut in were done so almost 50-70 years ago when the chimney was much younger. If I were you I would call the city. A quick google search this and most forum topics on this subject say its against code.
I just don’t see a way to safely cut a 4" hole through clay brick without causing all sorts of cracking to the surrounding area which would allow CO to leach directly into the living area. The other concern I have is chimney capacity. If your vent pushes enough cfm the exhaust from your furnace wont overcome gravity and leak downwards through your exchanger.
So the correct way to do it is to open that wall up all the way to the attic and install your duct work in it. Doesn’t matter that its load bearing.
Example is just that, an example. I’d never use flex line like that lol.
Interesting point about capacity. I hadn’t thought about that or even that it may push exhaust from the furnace into the hood.
I’m on the lower level of a double so going through to the attic is a huge task.
Unless someone comes along with a solid answer as to it being an easier thing to accomplish with proven methods, I’ll go vent less as you suggested in the previous post. I appreciate the discussion. :tup:
Yeah I started finding more information on this last night. I’ve absolutely removed the idea as a possibility. Instead, I’m going to do a non-vented SS hood and call it a day.
As it turns out, there was already a hole in that area from a word burning stove back in the day. About 6" in diameter.
However, as I was pulling off the drywall the plug fell into my hands. :ohnoes: I immediately shut down the furnace, ran to home depot to buy a plug to place there for now and sealed off that corner of the room just in case any CO was still leaking. It isn’t leaking now but I have someone coming out this afternoon to look at sealing it up properly by redoing the brick.
