Are you thinking of changing from oil heat to gas? Have you switched to gas heat already? Either way, I’ll bet most of you never thought about the chimney. If you are switching from oil to gas, reline your chimney.
No matter whether you’re using wood, coal, oil or gas to heat your home you are burning fuel. When you burn that fuel, it’s smoke/gas/residue goes up and outside through the chimney. As a result, any residue left behind sticks to the chimney walls as it travels outside. This is what creates all the trouble.
Each fuel has it’s own residue with it’s own unique properties. If you don’t reline your chimney problems happen. Whats left behind from one fuel may not mix well with another’s.
With oil you get sulfur. With gas you get water. Remember your high school chemistry? Sulfur + water = sulfuric acid. The result is that this caustic mix eats away at your chimney’s walls. Over the course of years tremendous damage occurs. 
Recently David DeLorme of DDL Home Inspections saw evidence of this at a home inspection. He advised my customers to have a Level 1 Chimney Inspection done. Douglas Lee of American Chimney Service came to do it a few days later.
Doug looked at the chimney and immediately knew the house had been heated by oil. He found severe damage. It was so bad that the chimney was collapsing. The chimney could not ventilate properly as a result.
Doug said it had to be fixed before anyone moves into the house. Because the chimney was not doing it’s job carbon monoxide was backing up into the house. Fixing this required close to $10,000.
If you are thinking of changing fuels to heat your home, make sure you call in a good chimney contractor like American Chimney Service and reline your chimney.
