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Chimney Relining in Butte and the Deer Lodge Valley

Most of these stacks were built for coal. Almost nothing burns coal here any more.

Interior of an unlined brick chimney with open mortar joints

Old house, new stove?

If the appliance changed and the chimney did not, that is worth a camera run before winter. Tell us the age of the house and what is connected to it.

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Butte has a housing stock that almost no town of its size has, and it creates a chimney problem almost no town of its size has either.

The Uptown, Walkerville and much of the Flats went up between roughly 1890 and 1920, during the mining boom, and they were built around coal. Coal was what Butte had, coal was what Butte burned, and the chimneys reflect it - tall multi-flue brick stacks, generous cross sections, frequently with no clay liner at all because a coal-fired appliance vented into bare brick was the normal construction of the period.

A century later, essentially nobody here burns coal. Those same stacks now carry natural gas furnaces and water heaters, modern airtight wood stoves, and inserts dropped into fireplaces that were never built for them. The appliance changed three or four times. The chimney never did.

Camera run of the full flue before anything is quoted, footage handed over
Flue measured at the top and at the appliance - old stacks are rarely the size they look
316Ti or 304 stainless liner sized to the appliance, insulated where clearances need it
Abandoned and shared flues identified and dealt with rather than left in the wall
Top plate, storm collar and cap fitted; connector and tee made up properly
Written spec of liner grade, diameter and insulation for your records or your insurer

Job	Typical price
Insulated stainless liner, straight single flue	$1,800 - $3,200
Tall Uptown stack, offsets or breakout required	$3,200 - $5,000
Gas appliance liner, small diameter	$900 - $1,800
Second flue in the same stack, same visit	+$900 - $1,600
Camera survey of a disused flue before reuse	$160 - $260

Butte, MTAnaconda, MTDeer Lodge, MT

What a Coal-Era Stack Does to a Modern Appliance

Three specific mismatches, and none of them are anybody's fault.

Size. A flue built to carry coal smoke from a large stove is far bigger than a modern appliance needs. Put a six-inch wood insert or a high-efficiency gas furnace on it and the exhaust expands, slows and cools long before the top. Cool exhaust condenses, and condensation is what produces the hard glazed creosote we describe on the sweeping page - which is why some of the worst flues we open here belong to people who barely burn.

Acid. Modern high-efficiency gas equipment pulls so much heat out of the exhaust that what reaches the chimney is cool and wet, and gas condensate is acidic. Run that up bare century-old brick and lime mortar and it dissolves the joints from the inside. This is the failure that surprises people most, because it happens on the appliance they think of as the clean one.

Abandoned and shared flues. A four-flue Uptown stack that once served a coal range, two stoves and a water heater now typically has one or two live connections and several capped, plastered-over or simply forgotten. We regularly find a live gas appliance and a wood stove sharing a single flue in these houses, which is a carbon monoxide problem rather than a housekeeping one.

What is not automatically true: that an old chimney is a bad chimney. Butte brickwork was laid by people who knew what they were doing, and plenty of these stacks are structurally excellent. Age alone is not the finding. The camera is.

Common Questions

My house is from 1905 and the chimney has never been lined. Is that illegal?

No - it was built to the standard of its day and nothing obliges you to change it while it stays as it is. What changes the picture is connecting a modern appliance, because that is an appliance change and it brings the flue into scope. In practice the sizing and the condition matter far more than the paperwork.

We only have gas. Surely that is fine on an old chimney?

It is the case we see fail most often. High-efficiency gas exhaust is cool and wet and mildly acidic, and bare old brick and lime mortar do not tolerate it. A correctly sized liner is usually cheaper on a gas appliance than on wood because the diameter is small.

Can you line a chimney that has offsets in it?

Usually yes. Flexible stainless negotiates the doglegs typical of a tall Uptown stack, which is one of the reasons we favour it here over rigid systems. Severe offsets add labour and occasionally require opening the masonry at one point, and we will tell you before we start if that looks likely.

How disruptive is it? We are in the house.

One day for a straightforward flue. Most of the work is on the roof and at the appliance. Drop cloths and a HEPA vacuum inside as with any of our work, and where tile has to be broken out we seal the opening off - that is the dusty part and it stays contained.

There is an old capped hole in our basement chimney. Does that matter?

It is worth showing us. A capped thimble means a flue that used to serve something, and the question is whether it still shares a flue with a live appliance. In these houses that is common enough that we look for it as a matter of routine.

Tell us about the job

Give us the basics and we'll come back with a firm price, usually the same day.

Get a camera down it before winter

Tell us the age of the house and what is connected to the chimney now. We will come back with what it actually needs, including when the answer is nothing.

Call (406) 625-8166 Get a Free Quote