Heads up - found a rotten support beam inside a chimney in an old house near downtown Portland yesterday

3 comments

3 Comments

Wait, inside a chimney? Those support beams are usually in the walls not actually inside the flue itself. Might be something else you found in there.

susanm565d agoMost Upvoted

You know this actually reminds me of something I've noticed around my own house. It seems like every time I try to fix one thing I end up finding three other mysteries that don't make any sense. Like how the previous owners put a shelf in my closet but it's just blocking a vent nobody can explain. So yeah maybe that beam isn't structural at all just some old DIY project that got forgotten.

laura_allen5d ago

Three Portland houses I've worked on had chimneys stuffed with old lumber from the 1970s. People used to jam random wood in there to stop drafts or hang stuff. Your rot just proves nobody bothered to pull that junk out.