I rent an old limestone house and just before I moved in, my landlady patched the interior rear wall of the fireplace as the limestone was frittering away and painted all surfaces white. A chimney sweep was called in and as all seemed fine, I lit a fire on the first chilly evening. It looked wonderful and drew beautifully but the smell of blistering plastic paint was vile. As well the plaster or whatever material used for patching, crazed badly. Should I chip as much of this away as I can and repair with refactory cement (and get a grate!) or, as my friends suggest, buy a thick rug and a radiator?

Our chimney has a structural crack in the flue and masonry from an earthquake. We've been told we need to take the chimney down to the shoulder (where the crack is) and rebuild from there. We've been given two options. 1) Rebuild in masonry or 2) Do a metalbestos conversion. In our situation, it turns out the metalbestos conversion is slightly cheaper & since we want to stucco over the whole chimney anyway, possibly a better way to go. It also seems like the metalbestos is lighter & would survive future earthquakes better. Since it seems like it's an all-around better choice, why would someone in our position consider rebuilding in masonry? Will there be any difference in the functionality of the chimney with either option? We previously had some smoking inside, but that was possibly to do the absence of a chimney cap which we intend to install. Dan.