Chimney Balloon 4 feet up

Q: Jason, I have attached a few photos of my fireplace and I was wondering how I can get the Chimney Balloon up into the first chimney flue tile if it is about 4 feet above the hearth opening? See the attached photos that the smoke chamber above the damper stair-steps upwards to a smaller square 11″ flue tile clay chimney liner.

I see you have a handle extender but I would need to link 3 of them together to reach this first flue tile. – TR

A: Dear TR, You are making this way too hard for yourself. In the picture of your fireplace firebox, I see the handle of your damper sticking down and it looks like a vestal damper. This damper is installed about as low as possible and this makes it very easy to just inflate a Chimney Balloon in above the damper door.

Take your folding carpenters ruler or tape measure and get the width and depth dimension of that area just above the damper door and that will tell you what Chimney Balloon size to get.

It is hard to tell dimensions from a photo of a flue, but I bet you will find the measurement is around the 36″x15″ size by the looks of it. When there is a large vestal damper the size is usually 36×15. Occasionally the smoke chambers will be up to 45×18 in the area above the damper if the mason that built it gets a little crazy with setting the bricks in the smoke chamber. Either way, it is worth a quick check before ordering. – Jason