Chimney repair from the cap to the firebox in Catalina

Rust on a steel lintel or support angle

Some chimneys and fireplaces rely on steel to carry masonry. Over a fireplace opening, the Florida Building Code has the masonry supported by a noncombustible lintel with bearing at each end, and brickwork elsewhere can sit on steel shelf angles.

Rust on steel that carries brick is more than a stain. BIA maintenance guidance lists accumulated rust on lintels or shelf angles among the conditions it treats as structural, the kind that warrant a professional engineer's investigation.

Light surface rust and accumulated rust are not the same finding, and the difference is checked up close. At your Catalina home, a lintel with heavy rust is written on the estimate as a structural item with an engineer's evaluation recommended, not as a paint job.

• Rust building up in layers on the exposed steel
• Cracked mortar joints just above the steel
• Brick over the opening that has dropped out of line

The metal top of a framed chase

The top of a chase is sheet metal, and on a factory-built chimney it is part of the system. One maker's instructions, DuraVent's for its DuraChimney II chimney, set the chase top flashing on spacers above the framing, leave a ventilation opening around the pipe, seal a collar to the pipe just above the flashing and place the chimney cap above that.

A flat or sagging top holds water, and rust starts where water sits, then runs down the siding as streaks. A top sealed tight to the pipe or pushed down onto the framing can also close off the ventilation space those instructions call for.

Replacing it means matching the chimney system underneath, not only the size of the box. Our chase cover replacement service checks the points below before a new top is specified, and the estimate lists the top, the collar and any framing repair as separate items.

• The chase size and the pipe diameter
• The collar and its seal to the pipe
• Rot or rust in the framing under the old top
• Clear ventilation space around the pipe

A chimney that vents a furnace or water heater

Some masonry chimneys carry more than a fireplace. A furnace, boiler or water heater may vent into its own flue in the same chimney, through a connector that enters from the side in a utility room, closet or garage.

A masonry chimney's lining has to suit the appliance connected to it, and the Florida Building Code sends flue linings for gas appliances to its fuel gas chapter. It also says the space around a lining system installed inside a masonry chimney may not be used to vent any other appliance. A flue built for a fireplace is not automatically right for a water heater, and the reverse holds too.

The appliance itself belongs to the trade that services it. Our crew in Catalina handles the chimney side, meaning the flue, its lining, the inlet at the masonry and the top, and the estimate says plainly which items are ours and which belong to that trade.

Cracks in the chimney breast inside the room

The chimney breast is the part of the chimney that shows inside the room, finished in plaster, drywall, brick or stone. A crack there can be finish movement where two materials meet, or the first visible sign of water or structural movement behind the wall.

Brick Industry Association maintenance guidance lists differential movement among the possible causes of masonry distress. It also notes that with differential movement or improper flashing the source may be hidden and found only through closer diagnosis.

Our technicians read the inside crack together with the outside of the chimney and the flue, because the cause is often not in the room at all. For your Catalina home, the estimate separates the repair at the source from patching the finish, so the patch is not wasted. Any of the signs below moves a crack out of the cosmetic column.

• A brown stain or bubbling paint beside the crack
• A crack that keeps growing or reopens after patching
• A stepped or diagonal line through brick