Honest chimney chase repair for Killarney homes

Telling a framed chase from a masonry chimney

Plenty of homeowners are not sure which kind of chimney they have, and it changes the whole repair. A masonry chimney is solid brick or block with a flue inside. A framed chase is a wood box around a metal pipe.

If the chimney turns out to be masonry, the job belongs to a different repair, and we tell you so on the spot. Stucco over block is patched as masonry work. Stucco over a framed chase in Killarney is part of chase repair, because the wood behind it is what fails. These clues sort it out from the ground.

• Siding or stucco that matches the house walls, with no brick joints
• A flat sheet-metal top instead of a poured concrete crown
• A round metal chimney cap rising from the top instead of a clay flue tile
• A metal firebox with a maker's label inside the fireplace opening

Carrying the barrier to the top of the chase walls

The top of a chase is where the barrier often goes wrong. Florida's code, in R703.2, calls for the barrier to run continuous to the top of walls and to be finished at penetrations so the wall stays weather-resistant. On a chase, that top edge sits right under the metal cover.

If the barrier stops short of the top plate, water that gets past the cover edge lands on bare sheathing. If it ends in a way that lets water track behind it, the result is the same.

With the upper siding off a chase in Killarney, our crew runs the barrier up to the top plate and laps it so water sheds onto it, not behind it. That detail disappears once the siding is back, which is why it gets checked before the first board goes on.

Plywood panel siding with swollen edges

Many chases are sided with grooved plywood panels, the kind that looks like vertical boards. It goes up fast, but its bottom edges and horizontal joints take on water easily. Once the face layers start to separate, the panel seldom recovers.

Swollen or flaking bottom edges, loose face layers and dark stains along the grooves are signs the panel has been wet for a long time. One of the first things to check is whether the panels have sheathing behind them or are nailed straight to the studs, since that changes how much of the wall needs work.

Our crew replaces failed panels full height where they are soft and flashes horizontal joints so water cannot sit on a cut edge. If you would rather move to a different siding, we price that as an option on the written estimate. Panel edges and cut ends are primed before the panels go up.

Sistering a stud or replacing it

Not every damaged stud has to come out. When rot is limited to the bottom few inches, a new stud can be fastened alongside the old one, which is called sistering, and the rotted end cut away. When a stud is soft along its length, it is replaced.

Plates are different. A rotted bottom or top plate is replaced in sections, since sistering a plate seldom helps. Corners, where two walls meet, get new framing so the chase stays square. Sistered studs are fastened along their full length, using straight, dry lumber so the new stud stays true.

Any new framing keeps the listed air space around the chimney pipe. We explain each choice on your Killarney job and write down what was sistered and what was replaced, so the next person to open the wall knows what they are looking at.