Wood framed chimney - remove or repair?

Our 20 year old house has a small wood burning fireplace which I quite enjoy in the winter. Like most crappy tract houses built 20 years ago, the "chimney" is a sheetmetal tube that goes straight up through the roof. Where the chimney pipe exits the roof it has a 3'x4' (give or take) wood structure framed up around it that is about 6' high at the back. I assume this is mostly an appearance thing to look like an old-school masonry chimney. Ours has started to leak viciously on the downslope side and much of the wood structure itself needs rebuilt. From my reading I assume this is a common problem with these things as they age.

Not looking forward to rebuilding the whole thing only to fight leaks around it in the future. Would I be better off / could I tear the whole upper structure off, add some roof decking and shingles to fill in the hole and just leave a properly-installed and flashed chimney PIPE sicking up? I mean, I know it has to be spaced away from contact with the decking and braced properly, etc, etc, but wouldn't just the pipe with a proper flashing be more leak resistant and durable than the untreated 2x4s and masonite crap?

Are there permit regulations about these kind of repairs? I assume there is a spec for minimum extension above the roofline or something? Who sets those regs for an area?

Anybody worked on this kind of thing and want to share their thoughts?

because, ya know, GRM knows everything...

Check the local codes, personally I would rather the triple wall pipe were exposed so you can inspect the full length regularly for safety.

If you're allowed that much freestanding chimney pipe or brace it properly, I don't see why/how that wouldn't work better.

I'm assuming i'd need the overall pipe to be as tall as the current chimney, so guesimating 6 ft of pipe exposed. So bracing was already in the plan.

Existing crap:

The wood burner in the corner of my living room has a lot of pipe exposed above the roof and sometimes it makes it tough to get it to draft well. The exposed part gets so cold that the smoke won't rise through it until it is heated up. Might want to talk to a pro in your area to see what works best there.

oldopelguy wrote: The wood burner in the corner of my living room has a lot of pipe exposed above the roof and sometimes it makes it tough to get it to draft well. The exposed part gets so cold that the smoke won't rise through it until it is heated up. Might want to talk to a pro in your area to see what works best there.

What area are you in?

In reply to ultraclyde:

Any old Chimney sweeps in your area? Good place to start.