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Possible Duplicate:
Installing a Chimney Liner a DIY project?

This seems to be an ongoing theme, and quite annoying I might add.

When I first went looking for this to be done, I found some WILDLY different quotes. One guy said the materials -start- at $3000. Another 4-7k, a 3rd said "2 grand tops". So smelling a rat, I went looking and found this... http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Chimney/Champion-EasyFlex-316Ti-Chimney-Liner-Kits/316Ti-Chimney-Champion-Easy-Flex-Chimney-Liner-Kit-55in

Ok, so 1300 bucks MAX (sleeve and insulation) and it's rated for any fuel I could throw at it (it's going to be wood) and there's no way this can be complicated. Run it down the chimney, connect it up, done. Oh, I forgot to mention, this is a house that's had a chimney for almost 100 years and appears to be used all the way up though the 90s then the fire place was walled off (why do people do this?!). I can see daylight at the base of the chimney. It's around 45' high.

I called some place today, 300 bucks to come out, clean and inspect my chimney, ok that's not too bad ... but got the sticker shock again "$2,000 to $15,000" for the sleeving ...what?

So my question -- why is doing it myself 1300 bucks and a 6 pack for a friend and if I hire some place, it's going to be a TON more than that? Is this like a 5 day job or something is amazingly hard that I'm not seeing here?

Community
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  • fail ... this wasn't a duplicate. I wasn't asking if it was a diy project, I'm asking why is it so damn expensive. And I got some answers. Here's the pros/cons that I was able to figure out after talking to 5-6 people. 1. Adding a rigid wall chimney liner isn't always necessary. 2. Build up happens on everything, flex or straight doesn't matter. 3. a flex install has two contact points (top/bottom), a rigid one has multiple -- if you can service those (going though a house) great, if you can't, that can be a problem. –  Nov 22 '10 at 13:25
  • I managed to find someone that's done a ton of these in my area, total charge : 1600 for everything (cap, sleeve, T and iron to the burner) –  Nov 30 '10 at 03:08

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Just for a little perspective, I have a ~100 year old chimney (no fireplace, just a vent for the gas appliances in the basement). There was no sleeve and no chimney cap when I bought the house.

Recently, I had someone come out to fix everything before I had the roof done. He removed the existing cap along with all the exposed brick, rebuilt the whole exterior chimney, installed a ~30 foot liner, installed the new chimney cap, and hooked up all the vents in the basement.

All of that ran $800 (in Chicago).

Given that, the $2000 estimate does not sound out of hand (considering the 45' height)... but ranging up to $15000 seems suspicious. Perhaps someone will have a little more insight on why there is such a wide range.

James Van Huis
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  • Today I talked to some guy who was HELL BENT on not selling me anything. "$3-4000 range, probably more" and insisted getting one like the link I provided "would require cleaning on a monthly basis" -- basically making it sound like there's 100% chance of it catching fire ... ? Parents house (newer, 90s home) has been cleaned ONCE and my dad said it almost wasn't worth doing - they burn two cords a year ... sometimes more. –  Nov 16 '10 at 21:25