Woke up to a beeping smoke alarm, a smoggy living room and seeing this fallen from the chimney. WTF?

by CandyCane147

35 comments

  1. Some fireplace installers pack the chimney around the metal flue with vermiculite.

  2. That the vermiculite that’s installed down the chimney around the flu to fill the void.

    What ever is above the log burner holding it up there is no longer.

  7. We were lucky, could of had a chimney fire or carbon monoxide poisoning.

  8. This fills the annulus between the liner and the chimney, its is necessary for the heat exchange so you don’t get condensation. The register plate that essentially keeps it in place at the bottom (you fit that before filling annulus from the top) must have failed.

  9. Wood burning stoves are literally the worst things for the environment, worse than diesel engines by a mile, maybe a sign to stop using ancient and outdated tech and filling other people lungs with particals???

  10. Decades of pigeon cold cases have just been solved.

    Advanced warning, they’re a bitter species of bird. I’d get this cleaned up pronto. Ravens are good at this, they know people, get on that.

  12. You vermiculite people are awesome. That’s a really useful r/til that’s gonna stick with me.

    The Santa comment made me laugh too.

  13. Sorry about that, I said the wrong place when I used floo powder last night.

  14. Not sure how old your house is, or when your stove was installed, but I’d be looking at any warranty you might have from the builder, plus contact your house insurance, this will be expensive.

  16. *pokes with a stick*

    *”Yup, thar seems to be yer problem, old sport..”*

  19. Could’ve been worse. Could’ve not woken up this morning.

    Was it a beeping smoke alarm or a beeping CO alarm or both? I’m slightly interested in which would go off first.

  20. Now don’t keep burning carbon, filling your house and neighbourhood with particulates and invest in some central heating.

  21. A lot of people seem to know what this is but I don’t really see a comment explaining why this happened. Is it a chimney/flue fire causing it to disintegrate and fall?

  22. So Chris Cringle has been on the port again and has been jumping down your chimney.

  27. AT First glance I thought the Kitty litter dispenser HAD MALFUNCTIONED ! This situation is far worse .
    Looks like the Annulus is to blame .

  29. When you get a critical hit with a lazer in Fallout

  30. Vermiculite. It lines the chimney you normally have a board and seal at the top of the fireplace where the flue goes into the liner. Check it’s still firm and sealed (we had an issue years ago with a poor fitting). Then sack up the vermiculite and get up to the roof to lift the chimney and refill. Or call your chimney sweep as most of them can do repairs.

    Just adding it’s possible the liner has detached from the end which is seriously dangerous. So get it checked

  32. I used this on my fire place to back fill it I mixed it with cement

  33. The chimney flu tore probably near the bottom somewhere by the looks of it and the chimney insulation poured out. It might be able to be patched or more likely have to get the chimney relined and packed. Its just to protect the chimney from excessive heat from stoves.

  35. Missing the cement and water, vermiculite, cement, water is the proper mixture for this, builder at fault either didn’t read instructions on bags or didn’t care

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