Your family-owned chimney company in Eagle Creek

A second story, a raised roof or a new room beside the chimney can change how a fireplace works even though nobody touched the chimney itself. When an addition is planned for a home in Eagle Creek, a community in Orange County, the chimney belongs in the drawings from the start. The Florida Building Code sets how high a chimney must rise.

Its top has to clear the roof by at least 3 feet where it passes through, and stand at least 2 feet above anything on the building that sits within 10 feet of it. A new wing or a taller roof inside that distance can leave a chimney that once met the rule too short afterward.

In the Brick Industry Association's words, height and flue area matter more than anything else in how a chimney is designed. A masonry chimney that needs more height is extended in masonry and finished with a new cap. A factory-built chimney is extended only with the maker's listed parts and terminated as its instructions require.

Either way, the new roof around it needs new flashing, and a chimney wider than the code's threshold that does not meet the ridge needs a cricket on its uphill side to steer water around it. If the work is already finished, watch for smoke rolling into the room on days it never did before, or soot marking the new wall near the chimney top.

Either one is a reason to leave the fireplace unused until it has been looked at. We measure the chimney against the new roof and the walls around it, explain what the code asks for and write the extension, flashing and cap work as separate lines. Eagle Creek homeowners get the inspection free, pricing upfront and 10% off work booked within 72 hours after it from our locally owned, family-run company.