Honest chimney repair for North Orange homeowners

When opening the chimney shows more damage

Some damage only shows once a failed surface comes off. Nobody can promise what sits under an old crown or behind old flashing until it is opened, so an honest estimate keeps what can be seen apart from what can only be judged once the work starts.

Where hidden damage is possible, the estimate says so up front and describes what would change the scope. If opening the chimney does reveal more, work on the new problem waits until you have seen it and heard what it means. The added repair is explained and priced, and nothing beyond the approved scope goes ahead until you say yes. That is what no hidden fees means on a repair.

• Soft or loose brick under a crumbling crown
• A washed-out mortar joint behind rusted flashing
• Old cracks covered by a patch or a coat of sealant

Step flashing on a shingle roof

On an asphalt shingle roof, the sides of a chimney are flashed with the roofing. The Florida Building Code allows flashing against a vertical sidewall by the step-flashing method or with continuous L flashing, and it sends chimney flashing on a shingle roof to the shingle manufacturer's instructions.

Step flashing is a run of short bent pieces, each tucked in with a course of shingles and turned up the chimney, so every piece sheds water onto the shingle below it. Continuous L flashing is one long angle along the side instead. Where the code spells out an L flashing method, it starts the flashing at the lower part of the roof so every metal lap sheds water.

The shingle maker's instructions control the details, and our crew follows the ones for the shingle on your roof. Your estimate spells out the method, the metal and how the counterflashing will lap over it.

Repointing to a uniform depth

Repointing is not a smear of fresh mortar over old joints. BIA maintenance guidance describes it as removing damaged or deteriorated mortar to a uniform depth and placing new mortar in the joint, packed in thin layers and tooled to match the original profile.

Depth is the step that gets skipped. The old mortar is cut back until sound mortar is reached, the brick edges are protected from chipping and thin slivers left on the brick are removed so the new mortar can bond. BIA warns that power tools can damage the surrounding brick and that repointing should be done only by qualified, experienced craftspeople.

A thin skim over soft mortar has little sound material to bond to. The estimate describes how the old mortar comes out and to what depth, which makes it easy to compare with a quote that just says repoint.

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 North Orange home is opened for a repair, the fireblocking is checked, and restoring it in noncombustible material is priced on the estimate.