New Block Chimney Moved/Settled –Help

[lnamiot]

I am building a house and we wanted to add a wood stove so we hired a mason who had to install a footing since this was an after thought. He dug out the soil poured a footing and then proceeded to build the chimney. We had a real bad rain storm which caused caused the footing to settle and the bottom of the chimney moved about 1″ causing the chimney to tilt about 3.5″ at the top from the house. There are some cracks in the lower portion of the morter lines. The mason said that he could fix the cracks and wnats to dig out around the footing and add concrete to stablize the footing. he claims that the interior lining did not crack as it’s in there loose. It has been up about 3 weeks now and has not moved again at all. I am looking for some advice on what I should do with this? I was told by people to knock it down and rebuild it?

Thanks

[homebild]

Your mason is wrong and this chimney will never pass a code inspection.

First, footings for foundations must be level and stable according to building codes.
Yours is obviously not.

Second, wood burning stoves require stainless steel chimneys not masonry chimneys. Or a masonry chimney with a stainless steel flue liner or a continuous approved masonry mortar specifically designed for use with wood burners.

Before you do anything, have your code inspector out for his advice.

It appears from here you need to fire this mason, then demolish the chimney and start over.

[Author]

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