Chimney repair and diagnosis in Gotha

Vines and plants growing on the chimney

Ivy on a chimney can look settled and harmless, but its small shoots work into voids in the mortar and may carry moisture into them. BIA maintenance guidance lists plant growth among the things that can contribute to water getting into brickwork.

Removing it the wrong way does its own damage. The guidance says to cut vines away from the wall rather than pulling them off, which could damage the brick. The shoots left behind are allowed to dry and darken before they are brushed off with a stiff fiber brush and detergent, and chemicals or acids are not used on them.

Once the growth is gone, the joints underneath get a proper look, since BIA notes repointing may be necessary if the mortar cracks or deteriorates as the ivy comes off. Removal and any joint repair are priced as separate lines.

Open mortar joints between flue tiles

A clay flue is only as tight as the joints between its sections. The Florida Building Code specifies medium-duty, water-insoluble refractory mortar with tight joints left smooth on the inside, and only enough mortar to make each joint and hold the liners in position.

Joints can erode, crack or drop out, leaving a gap between two sound tiles. Heat and flue gases then reach the chimney walls behind the liner, and water running down the flue finds another way into the masonry. Mortar left lumpy on the inside face works against the smooth surface the code asks for.

How the repair goes depends on how many joints are open, how high they sit and whether the tiles around them are sound. Scattered gaps in a good liner and a flue with failing joints along its length lead to different jobs. Each flue is written up with the joint condition found and the repair chosen for it.

Fireblocking where the chimney passes floors

The air space around a masonry chimney stops at each floor and ceiling it passes through. There the Florida Building Code requires fireblocking of noncombustible material, securely fastened, so flame and hot gases cannot travel up the gap. Between wood joists and the chimney it must be self-supporting or rest on strips of metal or metal lath.

The same code asks for fireblocking in concealed spaces of wood-framed walls at ceiling and floor levels, and around openings for vents, pipes and ducts. A framed wall or chase built around a chimney is that kind of concealed space.

Fireblocking can be missing, loose or made of wood or foam that does not belong at a chimney, and it tends to come to light only when a ceiling or wall is opened for some other reason. When a chimney wall or ceiling in your Gotha home is opened for a repair, the fireblocking is checked, and restoring it in noncombustible material is priced on the estimate.

What a finished repair should show you

When the job is done, you get a written record of the work we did, and you should be able to understand it without climbing onto the roof. Each line on it names a part and a repair, and each one should match something you can see or have explained to you.

Some results take time to show, like mortar color that evens out as it dries. When the job calls for it, a leak repair is checked with a water test from a hose.

Keep the record with the house paperwork and look at the repaired area from the ground now and then. If a line does not match what you see, ask us about it. Depending on the job, results like these should be easy to confirm.

• New or rebuilt masonry visible from the yard or a window
• Counterflashing set into the joints, not glued to the face
• A damper or cleanout door that opens and closes by hand
• A clear answer on when the fireplace can be used again