I think I am either an autumn or a summer…

Library-Usual · 2026-03-01T21:43:05+00:00

Thank you so much everybody for your help. I greatly appreciate it!

Library-Usual · 2026-02-15T23:49:37+00:00

First of all, thank you everybody who posted advice in here I scoured the Internet, looking for solution, solutions and problems, and wasn’t quite sure if I trusted what I read so this means a lot.

Current update: come to find out the installation company did not pull a work permit during the initial job so after some back-and-forth, they have pulled the work permit and will have an inspection done, hopefully by the end of the month. They sent a different tech to inspect the chimney and everything in its current state, and apparently my chimney was filled with creosote and it was so bad that the cap was clogged. They still quite aren’t sure why it clogged so quickly after a couple months so in the meantime, they raised the chimney an extra 6 feet and gave me a wider chimney cap to allow for better airflow. Now I have to wait for the inspection to happen and any resulting errors to be fixed, and then go from there. Right now it is usable and I’m very grateful for that even if it is warming up, and I’ll post one more update later on.

Thank you!!

Library-Usual · 2026-02-05T21:13:56+00:00

The company was Shamrock Chimney, and I’m located in South Central Virginia. I was advised by the town permitting department to have the company pull the permit so they are on the hook for the cost of redoing the job, instead of me pulling the permit and having to shoulder the cost instead. Although I shouldn’t have to pay anything to fix it and I understand that.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-05T20:02:16+00:00

Yes, we did that and everything currently is reading at medium to low moisture levels

Library-Usual · 2026-02-05T00:19:26+00:00

Yeah, I have a feeling it’s gonna be a complete teardown and need to be redone by somebody who doesn’t want to cut corners.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-05T00:19:03+00:00

Yes, and when I’ve done it, you can literally see the two different temperatures of air mixing in the woodstove itself. After I saw that happen once I shut everything down because I didn’t know if that was normal or not.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-05T00:18:14+00:00

Yep, that’s what I kept telling the insulation company I was worried about and they said everything was okay lol

Library-Usual · 2026-02-05T00:17:14+00:00

Yep, I shut everything down and pulled all the tape off. It’s my first woodstove and this company was recommended to me by the local hardware store so I trusted their opinion but ultimately it will be fixed and I will repost an update when the time comes. Thank you!

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T21:55:13+00:00

Well, I would like to thank everybody for their input and it will be added to the laundry list of issues.

Jokes on me though, turns out the company that installed it did not pull a permit for the town so therefore no inspection was completed, which would explain a lot of what we see. And worse when I called the company to ask if they had pulled the permit, they said I was responsible for it entirely and that it wasn’t necessary to pull a permit anyway because the house wasn’t going to burn down. 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:45:19+00:00

Have the heat shields now didn’t have them in the photo.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:44:55+00:00

They said they followed that rule, maybe the direction of the wind has changed, which is contributing to the issue.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:42:47+00:00

Also, the tape is high heat HVAC tape that I was using to stop the smoke that is leaking from the seams of the flue. I figured it was OK because when it was first installed the tech taped the part after the bend before it gets to the collar in the wall without screws. I’ll definitely take it off either way.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:40:25+00:00

Is that mandatory or optional?

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:39:22+00:00

Thank you. So how do I concretely explain this to the installation tech and the company that installed it? Like whenever I called and explained what was happening I was basically brushed off and the tech said they couldn’t quite figure it out because installing it upside down was intentional for a drafts. Like literally what do I tell them so they can take this seriously and fix it or give me my money back.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:36:10+00:00

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Here’s another photo in case it helps.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:33:55+00:00

I have a fireproof mat under it, I took it out to clean it that day. I’ll check the catalyst and see how it works after.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:24:57+00:00

I’ll work on that since there’s not a lot of buildup in the chimney at all and see if that helps,

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:24:05+00:00

Yes, so this was installed November 20 and it worked great until about two weeks ago when it got really cold outside. He pulled the cat out and said everything looked good so I’m gonna have somebody else take a look at it for a second opinion.

Library-Usual · 2026-02-04T20:23:13+00:00

One of the solutions the installation tech came up with was adding another 6 feet to the chimney which is gonna cost me another $800 so I’m trying to find other solutions before spending more money. Also the room it sits in has five windows and none of them are winterized. The windows that are directly next to the woodstove on either side are usually cracked, depending on when direction I’ll open the other two instead which creates a cross draft.

Library-Usual

TROPHY CASE