Chimney Repair
Crowns, caps, tuckpointing, flashing, spalled brick, and fireboxes that no longer hold a fire.
Who it is for
Houses that smell damp at the fireplace, stacks with open joints, cracked crowns, or brick that is shedding its face after a few winters.
What done looks like
Water stays out of the top. Joints are full. Loose brick is replaced. The firebox is relined in firebrick when the liner is the problem, not the roof.
What to send
Daylight photos of all four sides if you can see them, the attic penetration, and a note on whether it smokes, leaks, or both.
On this line
The usual failure
A cracked crown or a rusted cap lets water in at the top. Every freeze pries the courses apart on the way down. We start at the crown, not with a coat of paint.
Tuckpointing
Mortar ground out and replaced. On an old chimney the new mortar has to be no harder than the brick. On a modern stack it has to survive the roof.
Flashing
Step flashing and counterflashing at the roof. Masonry that is pointed and a roof that is still open at the cricket will leak. We say which trade owns the leak.
Firebox
Firebrick relayed in refractory mortar, dampers that still move, smoke chambers that are not falling in. A surround and hearth that have cracked away from the opening get rebuilt with the hearth line.
Questions
Do you cap and crown?+–
Yes. A sloped crown and a cap that covers the flue without choking it. The cap is metal. The crown is masonry. They are not the same piece.
My chimney leaks into the attic. Is that masonry?+–
Sometimes. Sometimes it is flashing, sometimes both. Send the photos. If it is a roofing item we will tell you instead of selling a repoint.