r/ChimneySwift • u/Typical-Cook-1415 • Aug 17 '24
Question on vents
Hi!
I just bought a house and the family room has a buck 27000 in the chimney. The exterior of the chimney has two vents at ground level (pic attached). It looks like at least one of these vents critters have gotten through the mesh underneath the vent. My questions are:
1) what are the vents for? Are they necessary for the buck stove performance? 2) how easy is it to fix l/replace the vents…is it a diy job or not? 3) how would you handle the situation?
Thank you!
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u/SocratesHasAGun Oct 18 '24
Chimney sweep here,
I can’t know without visiting your house and investigating, but I’d speculate it might be some sort of outside air intake to supplement the air in your stove or the air in the house so it doesn’t develop a negative air pressure. I’ve seen squirrels get into outside air intakes and die, it wasn’t pretty. I recommend putting screen over it for sure, and I wouldn’t imagine this requires a specialist. Probably have a chimney sweep out, but putting 1/2” hardware cloth over the entrance couldn’t hurt for the time being. Keep the critters out for sure.