Why Is Chimney Slanted In Attic In An Old House

In the event you wish to remove the chimney for purely aesthetic reasons the effort involved may prove more than it s worth.
Why is chimney slanted in attic in an old house. What follows are a number of important factors that must be considered before beginning to tear down your old chimney. One problem with the house is a chimney that was built towards the back of the house but then was built slanted in the attic so it would appear centered on the roofline. Colonial masons often brought a more central chimney straight up into the attic floor then built the chimney on an angle specifically to cause it to exit the roof at the roof s highest point the ridge. This was a house that was moved from its original site to a new site and it was put on a poured concrete foundation.
There are several reasons why a house could have a chimney without having a fireplace. I have this old house built in the early 1900s. The ground is always moving a little bit. That s why you see some houses from the 1800s or even 1700s where the bricks are still in great condition.
So if you have an old house you probably have pretty good bricks. Now this chimney does not look in good shape to me. It has been abandoned and the bottom part covered over in the walls of the home. On the exposed slanting part in the attic there is black stuff on the outside of the chimney and a whitish powdery film.
The chimney and several others like it on other older houses in this area didn t shift from settlement. It was straight from the basement up to the attic and then slanted from there. The brick chimney terminates in the attic and it has had a chimney liner put in sometime in the past. Here s an example of one below.
It has a brick chimney that has been cut off below the basement floor joists. The reasons for that decision were both cosmetic or aesthetic and possibly for improved fire safety and in some conditions improved draft too. Early furnaces had a small brick utility chimney often square. Shifting ground and your old chimney.
Chimneys like this are all missing flue tiles and generally need some form of repair.