There are several more services that I offer, one of which is brick restoration, better know as tuck pointing. That is where I can remove the loose cement between the bricks and replace it with fresh, then the key to making it last is to seal it with an industrial grade water seal. You see extreme weather in our country such as tempatures of -40 with wind chill and +40 turning to as much as +150 degrees on the brick surface as the hot summers hear can soak up heat to literally fry an egg on the brick, over a number of years those extremities tends to break down the natural barrier in the mortar.The mortar gets porras, allowing water to soak in during the spring and fall and freezes pushing the cement out between the bricks. Also the acids from natural gas eats the cement away not to mention if you happened to have a chimney fire which is even greater tempaturs up to 900 degrees F causing the chimney to expand up to 1/4 inch .
With the high price of gas and electricity people are looking to wood more and wishing they could put a fireplace in their home.If you do not have a wood stove or fireplace in your home one can be installed thanx to metal insulated chimney which is superior to brick and mortar as they will not crack or deteriorate in extreme weather. They can be put any ware in the home as there are several options for installation.The type I use is guaranteed for life as the materials on the inside are space age alloys and out side is stainless steel with a rock wool insulation, even with repeated chimney fires (which you should never have).
Pellet stoves are not my usual fow-paw but I have been known to install a few.Unfortunately the high price of the pellets, $5 a bag plus the cost of electricity, they are not feasible in my mind as they are quite useless in power frailer, very noisy, expensive, and have many moving parts that can require expensive repairs often.One thing I do like about them is they are very clean burning, and good for the environment compared to fossil fuels, and a great replacement ofr rural located oil and propane aplliances.There are pellet furnaces available to replace the evil natural gas,propane, and oil furnaces and they can burn for several days with the large capacity of the hopper, indeed an excellent choice for rural homes that wish for convenience.There is also the problem of adequate supply of pellets, this year there was a shortage of quality pellets as poorly manufactured pellets create problems such as oily residue cloging the chimney or to much moisture content can not burn properly & clog the auger.
Many people use the excuse that they no longer wish to chop or pack wood, although if you can lift a 40lb bag of pellets you should be able to pack a few pieces of wood. Convenience has made us fat,unhealthy and addicted to the large corporations in today's society, yet wood is good exercise, keeps us healthy and also gives us a sense of pride knowing we have control over our own destiny, not big corporations and the money stays in the community. Wood has been one of mans first and most important tools and is likely to be one of his last if the corporations and governments continues it's current path of ignorance,destruction and greed. I feel the problem lies in the governments run by "suits" whole haven't worked a honest day in their lives, governments and officials need to be made up of the working class with hands on experience needed to make key decisions. Listen to the news, time and time again we hear " I think", that's all fine and dandy but decisions need to be made on facts not personal feelings....I'd like to hear "based on the facts". It would have saved billions wasted on things like the inept attempt of gun control simply based on one person's feelings and thinking, fact is the criminals don't register their guns, that is why it didn't work and was abandoned.
This is a masonry chimney that was in a house 5 years old and is the result of one mild chimney fire when a guest visiting left the door ajar on a non EPA wood furnace,causing an over firing.The whole chimney from the roof line up fell over and this is what was left on the inside of house. you can see how close the joices are to the chimney, it's a miracle the house did not go up in flames.It turned out the company that built the chimney filled up the space between the flue tile and the out side structure. That space between the two is suppose to allow the flue tile to expand as during a chimney fire the flue tile can expand as much as a 1/4" As a result I replaced the entire chimney with a stainless steel Excel system. The company that built the chimney was never charged with an offence, and this is why I don't rely on hired hands to do my work for me, only I do the installs always going beyond manufactures recommendations.
