Honest chimney repair for Hunter's Creek homeowners

Overhang and drip edge keep water off the faces

Rain leaving a chimney top has to fall clear of the brick, or it runs down the faces and soaks in. BIA guidance shows the cap overhanging the faces. Where a cap does not overhang, it calls for the last two courses of brick to be corbeled out to form a drip, to help reduce the water running down the face.

A drip edge is also required by the Florida Building Code on the cap of a masonry chimney. The drip is simply the edge that water falls from, set out beyond the brick so the water drops free instead of creeping back to the masonry.

You can often read a missing drip from the ground. Streaks, dark wet patches or white deposits that start just under the top and spread down the faces can point to water leaving the top the wrong way. A flush top with those marks gets its own estimate line for a cap that overhangs.

The shape of a mortar joint sheds water

The finished shape of a mortar joint affects how well it keeps water out. BIA guidance on water penetration says concave, V and grapevine joints best resist water in exterior brickwork, because tooling presses the mortar against the brick into a dense, weather-tight surface.

Other profiles are meant for interior work. Flush, raked, struck and similar joints are not recommended outside, since they either leave the outer mortar unconsolidated or form small ledges where water can pond. The same guidance calls full bed joints an inherent requirement for water-resistant brickwork and says to tool joints when the mortar is thumbprint hard.

Repointed or replaced brick is tooled to a profile that sheds water. BIA maintenance guidance asks for the last layer of repointing mortar to be tooled to match the original profile, so where the existing joints are raked or flush, the estimate explains the choice between matching them and switching to a profile that keeps water out.

Antennas, dishes and lights mounted on a chimney

A chimney looks like a handy post for a satellite dish, an old antenna, a flag bracket or a string of lights. The Florida Building Code lets a chimney carry nothing but its own weight unless it was designed and built for the added load. A chimney built to carry itself has no allowance for a mast pulling on it.

The damage tends to start at the anchors. Bolts and straps drilled into brick or mortar open holes for water, and a mast that moves works those holes larger. Straps wrapped around the stack can crack corners and hold water against the face.

The repair is taking the mount down, patching or replacing the drilled masonry and putting the equipment somewhere built to hold it. Our technicians remove what is on the chimney and the estimate prices the masonry repair. Mounting the dish somewhere else is a job for its installer.

What the free inspection covers

The free inspection is a top to bottom look at the chimney, not a quick glance at the one symptom you called about. It costs nothing, and nothing is booked or started until you have a written estimate in hand and say yes.

Our technicians first identify the construction, masonry or factory-built, because that decides which parts, code sections and maker's instructions apply. Then each symptom is traced back to the part causing it, rather than stopping at the first likely suspect.

The estimate names each finding, the repair and its price, so homeowners in Hunter's Creek can decide what to do and when. The look takes in the parts below.

• Cap, crown and the top of the flue
• Flashing and the roof line around the chimney
• Brick, stone, stucco or siding and its joints
• Firebox, damper and smoke chamber from below