Old flue tile crumbled on me during a routine cleaning in Baltimore

I was working on a house from the 1920s in Baltimore last Tuesday. I went to brush the flue and about half a tile broke off and fell into the firebox. I had to stop and run the camera up there to see how bad it was. Turns out the whole liner was cracked and needed a stainless steel insert. Took me an extra 3 hours to get the job done and explain it to the homeowner. Has anyone else run into old clay flues that just fall apart mid sweep?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleythomas4d ago

I got a similar call last fall on a 1930s row house in Philly. The clay tiles were old and crumbly, and after I knocked a piece loose with the brush, I knew we were in trouble. I ended up using a small rotary tool with a diamond blade to carefully cut out the damaged sections before installing a flex liner. It was a pain, but it saved me from having to fully demo the whole flue. I also sealed the joints with high-temp silicone to keep everything stable. Honestly, once those old tiles start going, there's no fixing them without a liner.

beth_stone4d ago

Those old clay tiles are brutal, they just crumble into nothing the second you look at 'em wrong.