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Our 30 year old house has a concrete block interior chimney that contains separate clay flues for a wood stove (lower floor) and fireplace (upper floor). The chimney is exposed on all four sides on the lower floor. I’d appreciate input on some questions about the code requirements of keeping combustibles away from the chimney.
On the lower floor there used to be two non-loading-bearing partial walls that each had one end terminate at the chimney. The wood studs and drywall were in direct contact with the concrete block. We removed those and added one in another location. We used a metal stud in that new wall for the stud in contact with the chimney. The paper covering on drywall is combustible, so most of what I’ve read indicates that it is not to code to run the wall drywall right up to the chimney, yet it seems common to do so. We could easily use cement board for some section of the wall covering adjacent to the chimney, transitioning to drywall once away from the chimney. The ceiling drywall also used to touch the chimney, which seems contrary to what should be done. What is actually done in new construction in these situations?
Thanks for the input,
Chris
On the lower floor there used to be two non-loading-bearing partial walls that each had one end terminate at the chimney. The wood studs and drywall were in direct contact with the concrete block. We removed those and added one in another location. We used a metal stud in that new wall for the stud in contact with the chimney. The paper covering on drywall is combustible, so most of what I’ve read indicates that it is not to code to run the wall drywall right up to the chimney, yet it seems common to do so. We could easily use cement board for some section of the wall covering adjacent to the chimney, transitioning to drywall once away from the chimney. The ceiling drywall also used to touch the chimney, which seems contrary to what should be done. What is actually done in new construction in these situations?
Thanks for the input,
Chris
