Masonry and factory-built chimney repair in Park Lake/Highland

Water, heat and movement wear a chimney out

Three forces wear a chimney down over time. Water gets in at the top and at the roofline, soaking mortar, rusting metal and staining the rooms below. Heat works from the inside, on the flue lining and the chamber above the damper. Movement shows up as cracks and gaps where masonry has shifted or pulled away from the house.

One visible symptom can come from more than one force. A cracked joint may be years of water working into the mortar, or masonry moving because something beneath it has shifted. BIA guidance on maintaining brick says the origin of a problem should be found and both the cause and the visible effect corrected, which is why a patch over the mark alone does not settle it.

At your Park Lake/Highland home, each finding is sorted by the force behind it before anything is priced. The written estimate groups the repairs the same way, so you can see which lines stop water, which deal with heat damage and which address movement.

The crown is the roof of a masonry chimney

The top of a masonry chimney is its roof. Homeowners call it the crown, and the Florida Building Code calls it the chimney cap. The code wants it made of concrete, metal or stone, pitched so water runs off, with a drip edge and a caulked bond break at every flue liner.

Every part of that list does a job. The slope sends rain off the top instead of letting it sit. The drip edge lets water fall clear of the brick faces below. The bond break keeps the liner and the cap from being locked into one rigid piece.

Wear tends to show at the surface and the edges first, as cracks, crumbling corners or low spots where water now stands. Our chimney crown repair service handles the fix, and the estimate for homes in Park Lake/Highland says which part of the crown has failed and whether it can be repaired or has to be replaced.

Damage left by animals getting in

Birds, squirrels, raccoons and other animals get into chimneys through a missing cap, a torn screen, a gap at the chase top or a cleanout door that no longer closes. What they leave behind is the repair problem.

Chimney swifts need special care. They are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and when swifts are nesting in a flue, work there waits until they have left.

Once the animals are out, our chimney animal removal service clears the nesting material and the entry point is closed, whether that takes a new cap, a screen, a chase top repair or a new cleanout door. Removal and repair are listed separately on the estimate, and the damage found tends to look like this.

• Nests and debris packed in the flue
• Chewed or bent screens and caps
• Droppings and nesting material on the damper

When the 24/7 emergency line makes sense

Our 24/7 emergency line is for chimney problems that cannot wait for a regular visit. A section of masonry that has fallen or is about to, water pouring in around the chimney or a chimney struck by a falling limb all qualify.

Fire and smoke are a different matter. If there is a fire in the chimney or smoke filling the room, get everyone out and call 911 first. The fire department comes before any chimney company, and the chimney is looked at only once they say the house is safe.

When you reach the line, describe what happened, where it is on the house and whether anything is still coming down or coming in, so the visit to your Park Lake/Highland home can start at the right spot. In the meantime, keep everyone away from it and stay off the roof.