Chimney Services in Morris Township, NJ

What the numbers suggest for chimneys in Morris Township

Census estimates date about 15% of Morris Township's 8,650 housing units to before 1940 and another 18% to 1940 through 1959. The 1960s and 1970s account for 32%, 1980 to 1999 for 26% and the years since 2000 for 9%. Older and larger masonry chimneys can carry a flue for each fireplace plus one for the heating system, the arrangement our guide to multi-flue chimneys explains.

Heating is almost entirely gas: about 83% of occupied homes use utility gas, 11% electricity, 3% fuel oil and 2% propane. In a gas-heated house, a furnace, boiler or water heater can share the chimney structure with one or more fireplace flues.

About 72% of units are detached houses and 14% are attached homes such as townhouses. These numbers describe the township and not the chimney on any one property. If you live in the town itself, see our Morristown page.

Making a flue map of your chimney

A flue map is a simple list that matches every flue to whatever uses it. It sounds basic, but it answers questions that come up with every repair, cap or appliance change. You can start one yourself from the ground and the basement, and an inspection completes it.

1. Count the topsStand in the yard and tally the openings at the top of each chimney stack; a pair of binoculars helps. Stay off the roof.
2. List the usersWrite down every fireplace, wood stove, furnace, boiler and water heater in the house, floor by floor.
3. Follow the pipesIn the basement, note where each appliance's pipe enters the chimney, or whether it vents through a wall instead.
4. Mark the gapsIf you count more flues than users, one is idle. If you count fewer, two appliances may be sharing a flue, which needs a closer look.
5. Confirm by cameraAn inspection ties each flue to its appliance and records its lining and condition in photos. CSIA's Level 2 inspection includes a video scan of the flue interiors, which is how a hidden shared flue or a missing divider can come to light.

What keeps neighboring flues apart

The model residential code text reproduced by Rumford.com (2003 International Residential Code, section R1001.10) calls for masonry wythes at least 4 inches thick, bonded into the chimney walls, between adjacent flue linings when two or more flues share a chimney. The same text says the space around a liner installed in a masonry chimney may not be used to vent another appliance, and that a flue may not be smaller in area than the appliance's connector. That is an older edition of the model code; New Jersey adopts its own editions, so ask the Morris Township construction office which version governs work on your house.

Those rules explain why a flue map matters. If the brick between flues has deteriorated, smoke or exhaust can cross from one flue to another. If a new liner went into one flue, nothing else should be vented around it. And if a furnace was replaced with a direct-vent model, the water heater that stayed behind can end up venting by itself into a flue built for two appliances; our guide to the orphaned water heater covers that case.

Capping a multi-flue chimney also depends on the map. A single cap over all the flues and individual caps on each flue both exist, and the choice is covered on our chimney caps page.

Local questions

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates (tables B25034, B25040, B25024), via Census Reporter
2. Rumford.com: 2003 International Residential Code, Chapter 10 (Chimneys and Fireplaces) text
3. CSIA: The Three Levels of Chimney Inspections
4. CSIA: Frequently Asked Questions