Chimney repair with a free inspection in Camellia Gardens

Spot repair or rebuilding a section

The size of a repair follows the condition of the masonry around the damage, not only the damage itself. A few spalled bricks or eroded joints in a wall that is otherwise tight and plumb can be repaired in place, brick by brick and joint by joint.

It changes when masonry has shifted or sits out of line, or when cracks run through several units. BIA maintenance guidance treats that kind of movement as structural, so the cause is found first. Setting new brick into masonry that is still moving only buys time, and the sound approach is then to take the chimney down to a solid course and rebuild from there, anchored and supported the way the Florida Building Code requires.

Before choosing, our technicians check the masonry around every damaged area. Your Camellia Gardens estimate shows which approach we recommend, how far down a rebuild would go if one is needed and why a smaller repair would not hold.

Spark arrestor screens and their size

Some chimney caps carry a mesh screen around their sides. That screen is a spark arrestor, and on a masonry chimney the Florida Building Code lists what it has to meet.

A spark screen only helps while its mesh is open. Soot, creosote or leaves packed into it cut down the opening the smoke has to pass through, which works against the open area the code sets.

Where a screen is clogged, bent or rusted through, our crew checks whether cleaning will do or the cap needs replacing, and whether a replacement is sized for your flue. Screen and cap then share one priced line.

• Its open area is at least four times the open area of the flue outlet
• The screen resists heat and corrosion
• It can be reached and removed so the flue can be cleaned

Worn mortar joints let water in

Mortar joints are often where water gets into a brick chimney. BIA maintenance guidance says moisture may penetrate brick masonry through unbonded, cracked or deteriorated joints, and it lists the conditions that call for repointing.

Light scraping with a metal tool and a close look show where mortar has gone soft. The same guidance calls repointing, sometimes known as tuckpointing, one of the most effective ways to reduce moisture penetration, and it advises repointing all the joints in the affected wall area, since it can be hard to tell which joints are letting water through.

Worn joints on homes in Camellia Gardens are routed to our chimney tuckpointing service. The estimate marks each wall area to be repointed.

• Mortar eroded back from the brick face
• Mortar that crumbles or has voids
• Hairline cracks in the mortar
• Cracks between the brick and the mortar

Branches rubbing or hanging over the chimney

A limb that touches a chimney moves every time the tree does. Over time it scrapes mortar joints and brick faces, bends or loosens a metal cap and wears the finish on a chase. Leaves and twigs dropped from above collect on the crown and against the cap screen.

A clogged screen slows the smoke leaving the flue, and overhanging limbs give squirrels and other animals an easy route to the top. Leaves packed against the crown also hold water on the one surface that is meant to shed it.

Trimming comes first, by whoever looks after your trees, so the chimney is not repaired and then scraped again. Once the branches are back, our crew in Camellia Gardens clears the top, checks what the rubbing did to joints, cap and flashing, and prices only the repairs that are needed.