Chimney repair for homes in Lake Sunset

Cracked clay tile flue liners

Clay tile is the traditional masonry flue liner, set in stacked sections that run up inside the chimney from the smoke chamber's top to a point above the chimney walls. The Florida Building Code has the lining carried up close to vertical and supported on all sides. A cracked tile breaks what should be one continuous passage for smoke.

Brick Industry Association guidance calls for checking liners before they go in for cracks that could let smoke and flue gas leak. Once a liner is in service, a crack can do exactly that. Smoke and heat can then reach the masonry around the flue, which the liner is there to protect.

Whatever caused the crack, one cracked section high in the flue and a run of broken tiles call for different fixes. Our chimney flue repair service decides between replacing sections and relining the whole flue, and the fireplace stays unused until that repair is done. The decision is written down with the reason behind it.

The air space between chimney and framing

A masonry chimney is not supposed to touch the wood around it. The Florida Building Code requires an air space between the chimney and combustible material, larger for a chimney inside the house or within an exterior wall than for one entirely outside it. That space may not be filled with anything except the fireblocking the code calls for.

A renovation can close that gap without anyone noticing. Trim and sheathing edges may meet the chimney only where they sit far enough from the flue lining, which the code also spells out.

Our crew looks at the chimney where it passes floors, ceilings and the attic whenever it is part of a repair. Anything crowding it, like the examples below, goes on the estimate with what it takes to restore the space.

• Drywall butted tight against the brick
• Paneling or shelving fixed straight to the chimney
• New flooring or trim laid hard against the chimney face

Solar, gutter and roofing crews working around the chimney

Other trades spend time on the roof beside your chimney. A gutter crew may lean a ladder on the crown or cap, a roofer may bend flashing while tearing off old roofing and a solar crew may step on the chase top. Nobody means harm, but the chimney is rarely on their list.

Solar layouts deserve the most attention. Panels set right up against the chimney leave no place to stand, and every later repair to flashing, crown or cap then means moving panels first. Ask the installer to leave working room on each side of the chimney before the layout is final.

Tell us when another trade is booked. Our crew can look at the chimney before they start, so anything that needs fixing is done before their work covers it, and the estimate spells out the chimney work so it fits around theirs.

How a chimney is tied to the house

A chimney built against an outside wall is meant to be fastened to it. Brick Industry Association guidance says single-wythe chimneys should be attached to the structure, generally with corrosion-resistant metal ties.

Those ties sit out of sight. When they rust through or were never installed, the only signs may be a gap opening between chimney and siding, a crack running up the line where the two meet or trim pulling away. The same guidance has the layers of a chimney more than one wythe thick joined with metal wire ties where the masonry itself does not lock them together, so ties can matter inside the chimney as well as at the wall.

Where anchors or ties have failed, BIA maintenance guidance describes proprietary retrofit anchors set through small holes drilled in the masonry, usually in a mortar joint, and attached to the structure behind, with the anchor maker consulted on each product. It says such anchors improve the stability of the masonry. Our crew in Lake Sunset checks the joint between chimney and house during the inspection and writes any re-anchoring into the estimate.