Had a flue tile shatter on me in Cleveland last winter and everyone said to just patch it, but I insisted on replacing the whole section

I was on a roof in single-digit temps, knocked a loose cleanout cap and watched a hairline crack run the whole length of the tile, and after three phone arguments I pulled it all out and put in a new stainless liner, now I'm wondering if patching ever really holds up longer than a season or am I just stubborn?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_amy1d ago

Stick with the full replacement, patching flue tiles is just buying time till the next freeze.

craig.mila1d agoMost Upvoted

My 80 year old house still has original tiles that are fine.

bettyroberts1d ago

Oh gosh, that's amazing they're still holding up! It's funny how that works, right? We've gotten into this mindset that everything needs to be replaced the second it shows age, but old stuff was often built to last. I see this pattern everywhere now - people swapping out perfectly good wood floors because of a few scratches, tossing out solid furniture just because the style is outdated. It's like we've forgotten that "fine" is actually a perfectly good standard. Maybe we should all take a lesson from those old tiles and stop fixing things that aren't broken, huh?