10/05/2026
**A note for neighbors in older LaPorte and Michigan City homes with a boiler and a brick chimney.**
We wanted to share a recent inspection because it's a very important topic. Plenty of older houses here heat with a gas boiler venting up a brick chimney, often shared with the water heater. When the boiler is due for service, there's one mandatory question: Is my boiler venting properly?
The old chimney isn't a free pass, and clay chimney liners don't last forever. A chimney trade article on how they fail lists acid in flue gases and freeze-thaw cycles among the causes, and names the most common signs as "cracks in clay liners and displacement of broken pieces." We recently saw where a blocked chimney can end: a boiler sooted shut, on a chimney that was likely blocked.
If you're asking whether a new boiler can go back on an old brick chimney in LaPorte, the answer is that a new draft-hood boiler can go back on it only after the chimney is inspected and its lining is sound. Failing to clean or replace perforated pipe or tile lining can cause severe personal injury or death. The other answer is a boiler that doesn't depend on the chimney at all, and that choice belongs on the replacement quote.
When the boiler is sooted shut and the chimney is blocked, we don't clean and reline. We quote a boiler that doesn't depend on the chimney. If your water heater is on that chimney too, it comes off with a Navien combi that makes your hot water, or with a separate power-vent water heater. The boiler and what happens to your water heater are both on the quote before any work starts, and we can email it. Questions about yours? Call 219-362-6251.
Dye Plumbing & Heating Service Co. has served LaPorte since 1939. 1600 Lake Street Suite B, LaPorte, IN 46350. 4.8 stars on 444+ Google reviews. We work in LaPorte and Mill Creek. Indiana Plumbing Contractor License PC #10500518. Mon–Fri 7AM–5PM, Sat 7:30AM–12PM. 219-362-6251.
