I'm aware that a chimney stack can have flues at the top that can be arranged in various ways. But what is it like at the bottom?
Suppose we have a house with a crawl space foundation and the classic 2-3 tiled stoves and a kitchen stove on the entrance floor around the chimney stack. What does it look like in the chimney stack below the lowest flues? My initial thought is that the flues "start" high up on the interior wall in each room, but what is it like below in the chimney stack? Was it built completely solid all the way down to the ground? Is it built as a separating surface just below the flues and below that, there is another cavity to save on materials? Was it filled with boulders and mortar?
In short, how is it constructed under the parts you typically interact with?
Suppose we have a house with a crawl space foundation and the classic 2-3 tiled stoves and a kitchen stove on the entrance floor around the chimney stack. What does it look like in the chimney stack below the lowest flues? My initial thought is that the flues "start" high up on the interior wall in each room, but what is it like below in the chimney stack? Was it built completely solid all the way down to the ground? Is it built as a separating surface just below the flues and below that, there is another cavity to save on materials? Was it filled with boulders and mortar?
In short, how is it constructed under the parts you typically interact with?
Our chimney stack was solidly built from the ground up. It was a "channel" with two functions depending on the height of the channel in the chimney. From the basement up to the attic, the main pipe and the overflow pipe to the expansion tank ran through it. From the attic and up through the roof (in the same position), the intake went up, and they were separated by a stone thickness.
We tore down our brick chimney in 2009. Above the roof and in the attic, we dismantled it layer by layer. At ground level, we took down a section from the attic partway down, breaking many stones in the process. The reason we did this was to minimize dust inside. The chimney stack was plastered and had wallpaper on it at ground level, so we could then enclose half of the chimney stack and ourselves in a "tent" and dismantle the entire height at ground level and a little way down into the basement. In the basement, we intended to keep most of the outer layer.
We tore down our brick chimney in 2009. Above the roof and in the attic, we dismantled it layer by layer. At ground level, we took down a section from the attic partway down, breaking many stones in the process. The reason we did this was to minimize dust inside. The chimney stack was plastered and had wallpaper on it at ground level, so we could then enclose half of the chimney stack and ourselves in a "tent" and dismantle the entire height at ground level and a little way down into the basement. In the basement, we intended to keep most of the outer layer.