How'd it go today?

Rich if you put a couple of pics up of your issue you're having I could probably give you some decent advise on your options. Trying to envision exactly what it is you're trying to repair.

If your chimney is in fine shape I wouldn't reline it. If the issue is just the OD of the new thimble just chisel out the space needed and mortar in the new thimble.
 
That’s what I’m working on Justin. Just was getting frustrated with it last night. It’s tedious since the clay liner is recessed into block. Just being careful not to crack the liner is nerve wracking. If I break it I just spend a bit more and put in a stainless liner.
 
Here it's common to have a stainless thimble into a masonry chimney. But I don't know about code down there. Just if that's an option than maybe you don't need to chip/cut out anything and just mortar one in? Just spitballing. If you're removing or decommissioning this chimney soon paying to reline it kind of sucks.
 
I used flex inside my chimneys...diamond blade to cut out old flu and pole saw to knock off bulges in mortar to thread pipe down. wasn't to bad. Two wood stoves basement and upstairs
 
Flex is a solid choice for a liner and the only practical one in many cases. It can be insulated too with a wrap insulation. Insulating a liner greatly ups performance. Better draft and less creosote. Especially on exterior masonry chimneys, but even still on interior ones. Also it upgrades safety substantially and is the best way to make safe a masonry chimney that doesn't have proper clearances. An approved insulation upgrades a masonry chimney to zero clearance to combustibles meaning wood framing, trim and such can be right in contact with it. Otherwise interior masonry needs 2" clearance and exterior needs 1" to combustibles. That's code for Canada and the USA too.
 
Snowed 4-6" Sunday. We tried to do some work Monday after a maintenance morning, wound up doing 3 small jobs: broken hackberry limb (no cleanup), dropping a smallish American elm, chipping a brush pile. Today we started a big 2-day job today, multiple Osage Orange removals, maple and oak prunings. Big accident on the way in, Amazon semi was jacknifed in the median and was being craned out. On the way home, had to zig-zag through Kansas City to the chip dump because of a flaming wreck that backed up one Interstate artery for miles.

Seems as if people are forgetting how to drive in snow these days. Growing up in the Midwest, 4-6" was a usual occurrence, once or twice a week all winter. The first snow of the year here was ridiculous -- cars off the road and into the center barrier about every 1/4 mile!
 
Does it snow there now like it used to? My first day of driver's ed, in Chicago, Late 80's, was in 6" of snow. Doesn't snow as much. Chicago is much larger now, so maybe more urban weather patterns.


Does it snow anywhere like it did a couple decades ago? I'd heard about a lot less snow than in earlier decades from a self-storage owner in Colorado, mid 90's. Assured me of dry storage, unlike back in the day, when it was more challenging.



Been helping my employee along. Big day for their family tomorrow that they've been working toward. Hoping good stuff for them. Getting better, day by day. Both his 1 and almost 3 year old say my name. I saw them tonight when they picked him up.

We did a couple willow removals, two already on the ground in the greenbelt for an HOA. The last one was also root-rotted, so I loosen it up with grapples, tearing roots, and rocking it, and got it to almost tipping (130 degrees off the lean, which was toward two keeper trees, and I didn't want to climb it for no reason, in the rain) then got my guy on the machine to do the finale. He isn't used to doing things the easy way.

We had to use a homeowner's yard for access. As it happened, its the HOA rep I deal with for HOA tree needs. Very neatly kept property. Laid down a plywood roadway through river rock to some well established grass, and a bit more plywood where we were working, in the discharge for the neighbor's whole gutter/ drain system. Had showers on and off, so we had a stream on and off. Mostly grappled piles, snuck them past the house, up the hill, into the chipper directly. 20% hand-feeding, 80% mini. 30/70 maybe. No dragging.

After picking up plywood, you'd never know we ran 15 round trips, or so. Dry plywood stacks on top of the loader arms and BMG without any hydraulic hose interference, so its easy to lay the roadway immediately in front of you. The return trip was wet and slick. I had to grab 3 sheets at a time with the grapples, while my employee was working on other things. I need to figure out an easy way to handle wet ply with the grapple.

I ripped the stumps out and took the 6"+ logs and stump material to the edge of the woods and hid it.
 
Turned into a pretty bee-utiful day today.
Big ol Valley oak crispy dead with a bee hive in it.
This was our return trip since it was too warm and they were too active last visit.
Cooler now, but temps did come up this morning and they were busy bees. Not as bad as last time....
SO a buddy that keeps bees showed up for the nest. We did the rest.
Plugged the hole. Trimmed the limbs back and self lowered the hive into his truck bed. No stings.
Fodder
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l88a0VfCnVk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
GOPR1581.jpg GOPR1582.jpg

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aYqA58N3sEE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

;)
 
Bees were mostly chill. Just concerned why their hole got plugged on their way home. A lot of them hitched a ride to their new home. Hope they make it. We rigged the limb down as it was orientated to keep from drowning them in their honey.
 
Good work, Stephen!

Well, enough of this faffing around, drinking coffee by the wood stove, looking out the window. I found out that an MS 250 works much better when its air filter is clipped down on both sides...go figure!

I took it to the saw shop, since its sat on my shelf, waiting for me to do it. The owner showed me the trick to removing the air-filter. Rather than trying to unhook the two plastic tabs, you roll the filter sideways, and the clips unhook themselves, with no under power (breaks the tabs). Same filters in ms 210s and 211s.

We used to have the ms210 Barbie saws for hiking the Lake Mead high water mark killing invasive trees, athel tamerisk. They were called Barbie saws because everyone, the 5'2 woman up to the 6'5" dude on one of the crews ran ms440s, normally.
 
021 was my first saw...'lil basher'. It's still running 20 yrs old. two fuel lines, two tank breathers, one chain brake band. Invasive killer! Casuarinas and Mexican pepper
It's retired on light duties in Bermuda. The 'house' saw for the DIL to use after a storm.
 
Bees were mostly chill. Just concerned why thier hole got plugged on their way home. A lot of them hitched a ride to their new home. Hope they make it. We rigged the limb down as it was orientated to keep from drowning them in their honey.

Superb effort
 
Back
Top