Boiler exhaust/Chimney evaluation (Cincinnati Rental)

[Doug Phillips]

Hi everyone,

My partner and I have a rental property where the chimney is significantly leaning.  It appears to be quite expensive to take down and reconstruct, so before we commit to that, I wanted to see what all utilities are being utilized by the chimney- does anyone have any advice for doing this, and/or any recommendations of experts (Cincinnati local) that may be able to assist in figuring out the problem?  Another idea we had would be to possibly take down the chimney in height a bit, but not all the way down.  I contacted the previous owner but he isn't sure what is being utilized by the chimney.  Thanks!

[Jim K.]

We left it in place without lining it. I mortared the failing brick up top back together where I could, replaced some of it, and repointed the rest (rather sloppily). It ended up being present and nonfunctional. The other chimney had to be relined and rebuilt higher than I could stand, and that was flat-out dangerous so I contracted it out to a chimney crew and they charged me an arm and a leg.