[left] Okay, so I have a few questions about my gas fireplace. What I know about it is that the house was built in 2015, there is one switch that lights the fire while simultaneously turning on the pilot light, and the valve(?) the part you turn on the front face of the fireplace is very difficult to turn at all. The above are pictures of it lit and the only instructions we have for it. Also, when we had the home inspection earlier this year when buying the house they couldn’t get the fireplace to work and the owner came back saying that the heat had to be switched on. After about 15 minutes my husband finally got it working and the thing you turn, now turned as much as possible, is the reason why the pilot light wasn’t originally working. At first it just made the same sound as when you turn on a burner on a gas stove, the crackling noise. After he finally got it to turn a tiny bit more it lit when he tried the switch again. I know the switch controls the pilot because when he flipped the switch off it has nothing left whereas my mom’s has a tiny blue ember when the pilot light alone is lit. The fire had been lit for over an hour when I took the picture in case that matters. So first, what type of fireplace is this? Why would the heat have to be switched on to make the fireplace work if there is a switch to turn it off and on? Wouldn’t there be gas to the fireplace whether the heat was switched on or not? Why are the flames so low and heat only extending out about a foot? (Down to about two inches if I close the glass at the front.) How can we fix this so that the fireplace is more than just decorative?[/left]

My son owns a rental property that has a serious leak issue around the chimney. The house was built in the 1920s and originally had a coal furnace. My son bought the house in 2005, as I recall. The subject chimney runs up the wall on the west side of this 2-story house; it goes up along a bedroom wall and along/within a closet in the room. Some leakage was going on when my son purchased the house but became progressively worse as time passed. The leaking was, and is, causing damage to the old plastered walls up near the ceiling in the bedroom. About 2 -3 years ago, as I recall, my son paid a contractor to make a change in how the roof is configured around the chimney. That seemed to improve the situation for awhile but the leakage has returned and seems even a little worse than it was before the roof work was done. My son called the contactor 2 months or so ago and asked them to come out and inspect the work they had done. They acknowledged that a problem, which was was supposed to be aleviated still exists. At this point, I don't know whether that contractor is going to provide a remedy. When the guy from the contractor came out and inspected (climbed up on roof, went into attic, and into bedroom), he mentioned some apparent need for some tuckpointing on the chimney and mentioned the possiblity of some issues with the cap(s) on top of the chimney, but that was about the extent of his assessment. I've been thinking about the options/alternatives for a remedy. A permanent and effective solution is really needed. The furnace currently installed is a gas furnace which vents through a PVC pipe that runs along the basesment ceiling and out the basement wall on the east side of the house. So, the chimney is not needed for furnace venting. The gas water heater does vent into the chimney. I believe that could be changed so that a pipe for the venting of the water heater could run all the way up to, and through, the roof. Am I correct in my thinking about this? And, I am wondering whether the portion of the chimney extending above the roof could be removed, just down to attic floor level, and then have only a vent pipe for the water heater extending on top of the roof? Am I correct is my thinking about this? And, if so, could the vent pipe for the water heater, from basement to roof, go up through the old chimney?