Chimney repair for homes in Lawsona/Fern Creek

What you can check safely from the ground

You can learn a lot about a chimney without a ladder. Walk around the house, stand back far enough to see the whole stack and use binoculars for the top. BIA maintenance guidance recommends binoculars for observing upper areas up close, along with sketches and notes of what you see. It also suggests looking in different seasons, since some conditions only show in certain weather.

Stay off the roof. Nothing you could see from up there changes what happens next, and loose masonry and a pitched roof are a poor mix. Write down where you saw each thing and bring the notes to the free inspection, where our crew in Lawsona/Fern Creek checks each point you raise up close.

• Mortar that is missing or sits back from the brick face
• Rust streaks running down from the top
• A gap where the chimney meets the house wall
• Plants, stains or white deposits on the brick

Spot repair or rebuilding a section

The size of a repair follows the condition of the masonry around the damage, not only the damage itself. A few spalled bricks or eroded joints in a wall that is otherwise tight and plumb can be repaired in place, brick by brick and joint by joint.

It changes when masonry has shifted or sits out of line, or when cracks run through several units. BIA maintenance guidance treats that kind of movement as structural, so the cause is found first. Setting new brick into masonry that is still moving only buys time, and the sound approach is then to take the chimney down to a solid course and rebuild from there, anchored and supported the way the Florida Building Code requires.

Before choosing, our technicians check the masonry around every damaged area. Your Lawsona/Fern Creek estimate shows which approach we recommend, how far down a rebuild would go if one is needed and why a smaller repair would not hold.

A thin mortar top that crumbles at the edges

Some chimney tops are not a formed crown at all. They are a layer of mortar troweled over the top course and thinned out to almost nothing at the edges. BIA guidance says feathering a cast cap to the edge should be avoided, because it cuts the thickness at the edge and raises the potential for deterioration.

The thin edge is where these tops break up. Pieces chip away, cracks open and the top course of brick is left exposed to every rain. Without an overhang, water that does run off tends to run down the faces as well.

Patching a feathered top with more thin mortar repeats the mistake. The lasting repair is a new cap with a proper shape, thickened at the sides and overhanging the faces, which BIA says reduces the potential for water penetration, and sloped as the code requires. For your Lawsona/Fern Creek home, the estimate describes that shape and its materials, so you know it is not another thin layer.

Insulation and a metal chimney in the attic

Where a factory-built chimney passes through an insulated ceiling, the Florida Building Code calls for an insulation shield that holds insulation back at the clearance the chimney maker specifies. In an attic, the shield has to stand above the insulation and be secured so it cannot shift.

Attic work is where this gets undone. Blown insulation is topped up and piles against the pipe, a shield gets knocked loose or wiring is run along the chimney. DuraVent's instructions for one of its chimneys say never to fill the required air space with insulation or any other material, and to keep wiring and building insulation away from all chimneys.

Our technicians check the attic run whenever the chimney is part of a repair. They look for the three things below, and anything out of place goes on the estimate with its fix.

• A shield in place where the pipe enters the attic
• Insulation held back from the pipe on every side
• No wiring, boxes or stored items against the chimney