8 Oct
2012
8 Oct
'12
4:23 p.m.
On 10/8/2012 3:29 PM, Adrian Stoness wrote:
>I have a house I can't get insured because of
old masonry chimney which
>isn't based on the ground. but that's a way long off topic story.
>jim
>
It's an old farm house, my grandfather built. Noone required you to do
anything then. He built an 18" square chimney from the floor up thru
the roof, since the house is on rubble columns. The entire frame and
structure is white oak, so no problem with holding up a load like that.
However fire code apparently requires masonry structures for this
purpose to be run to ground. So the fix is to pull his work and replace
it with modern, or just live with it. I'm voting for the latter, it's
been fine for 57 years. I hate retrofitting of new code to old
structures, when what is working is working. People aren't permitted to
use common sense anymore under any circumstances. This is a case where
the code doesn't match the fact. I could also just pull the stove, it
doesn't heat the place anyway, and when I go to occupy it put in forced
air. Right now I only want insurance against wildfire and theft since
it sits 364 days of the year with only jackrabbits around it.