Smoke Chamber Repairs
Repairs to the smoke chamber usually entail filling voids between bricks or parging (coating) the walls with high temperature mortar. Sometimes all that is needed is to seal gaps or open joints. Sometimes we are trying to smooth the walls to reduce turbulence and improve flow. Other times we are trying to improve clearances to combustibles.
What is a Smoke Chamber?
A smoke chamber is the section of a fireplace system just above the damper and before the beginning of the flue. It is either a dome or a pyramid in shape. Its purpose is to funnel smoke from the fireplace into the flue, up, and out of the chimney. Brick smoke chambers have reclining walls so the chamber tapers to meet the flue. To achieve this, the bricks are stepped over (corbelled) at each successive course. This stepping, left unparged, creates turbulence in the chamber. The turbulence gives resistance to flow, which increases the residency time of the smoke. If the smoke stays in the smoke chamber longer, then it has more time to change to creosote. Whenever the flow is decreased, draft may also be decreased. So not only will the smoke chamber become dirty sooner, so will the entire flue.
Our Services
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SmokeTite
If we are only trying to seal joints or openings, we use the SmokeTite system. This system uses compressed air to shoot the material onto the smoke chamber walls. While chiefly used to seal openings such as cracks or joints, it can build up to some degree to smooth walls if needed.
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ChamberTech 2000
For smoke chamber walls that need thicker parging, we use ChamberTech 2000. As its name implies, it is suitable for 2000 °F. This makes it applicable to both heavier parging and to improve clearance to combustibles. In fact, the manufacturer says that when a 1 and ½ inch thickness is applied, "combustibles can be touching the masonry ". We think that is pretty impressive.
