There is usually no masonry here, which means there is nothing to line.
The word describes putting a new liner inside an existing masonry chimney. Almost nothing built in Box Elder in the last thirty years is masonry. What is there instead is a factory-built system: a metal firebox connected to double or triple-wall stainless class A pipe, running up inside a framed and sided chase that looks like a chimney from the street and is not one.
That distinction is worth establishing in the first five minutes, because it changes both the job and the price. A class A system does not get relined. Damaged or corroded sections get replaced, and that is usually cheaper than people expect - $600 to $2,200 for a section repair, $1,400 to $2,800 to replace a full run.
Factory-built systems are listed as complete assemblies. That means the firebox, the pipe, the firestops and the cap are certified together as one product, and mixing manufacturers is not permitted - not as a matter of preference, as a matter of the listing the installation was signed off under.
On a house built in 2004 whose system brand was discontinued in 2011, that is a real problem, and it is the point at which a section repair turns into replacing the run from the appliance up.
There is a second wrinkle specific to this town. With Ellsworth turning over, plenty of these houses have changed hands two or three times and nobody has the paperwork. We photograph the data plate inside the firebox on every visit, because that plate is the only thing that says what the system is - and once it is illegible or painted over, the options narrow considerably.
Specifically the data plate inside the opening. It tells us more than any description can.
Rather talk it through
Five minutes and a photograph of the data plate answers most of this before anyone quotes.