Chimney repair and diagnosis in Randal Park

Film coatings that hold moisture in the brick

Some coatings sit on top of brick as a continuous film. BIA guidance on coatings explains that a film keeps water out from the outside but also inhibits the evaporation of water already inside the masonry, which can lead to clouding and spalling if the source of moisture is not addressed. BIA maintenance guidance goes further and says film-forming coatings should not be applied to exterior brickwork.

Salts make it worse. When water cannot pass out through a coating, dissolved salts can be left behind it, and as they crystallize they can grow enough to break the face of the brick. The coating that looked like protection ends up holding the damage in.

If your chimney is already painted or sealed, the first question is where the water is coming from. Flaking faces and clouding under the film show where to look. Your Randal Park estimate puts the water repair ahead of any new coat and says whether the existing film is part of the problem.

Cleaning a brick chimney without damaging it

Cleaning brick can do more harm than the dirt it removes. BIA guidance on cleaning brickwork says to select the gentlest effective method and to try it first on a small, out-of-sight area before cleaning the whole surface.

The method is matched to the brick. BIA recommends following the brick maker's cleaning procedure where there is one and trying a bucket and brush or pressurized water before chemical cleaners. Windows, trim and metal nearby are protected, since many cleaning agents, acids in particular, attack metal.

The trial area also shows what to expect, since some cleaning methods change the look of the brick. The estimate names the cleaning method and the test area, and it lists cleaning as a separate line from any repair.

• Abrasive blasting and high-pressure water can etch joints and strip the brick face
• Steel bristle brushes can leave particles that rust
• Improperly mixed or strong acid can etch brick and dissolve mortar

Open mortar joints between flue tiles

A clay flue is only as tight as the joints between its sections. The Florida Building Code specifies medium-duty, water-insoluble refractory mortar with tight joints left smooth on the inside, and only enough mortar to make each joint and hold the liners in position.

Joints can erode, crack or drop out, leaving a gap between two sound tiles. Heat and flue gases then reach the chimney walls behind the liner, and water running down the flue finds another way into the masonry. Mortar left lumpy on the inside face works against the smooth surface the code asks for.

How the repair goes depends on how many joints are open, how high they sit and whether the tiles around them are sound. Scattered gaps in a good liner and a flue with failing joints along its length lead to different jobs. Each flue is written up with the joint condition found and the repair chosen for it.

Chimney repairs on a rental property

On a rental, the person who notices a chimney problem is usually the tenant, and the person who pays for it is the owner. Small problems wait too long in that gap. A tenant may keep using a fireplace with a stuck damper or a damp firebox because nobody said not to.

Until the chimney has been looked at, the simplest protection is telling the tenant in writing not to use the fireplace. It also keeps a small fault from getting worse before anyone has looked at it.

The written estimate goes to the owner, with each repair on its own line so it can be approved, phased or passed to a property manager. For rental owners in Randal Park, no work starts until the person paying for it approves it. The visit itself goes smoother with the practical side settled first.

• Notice to the tenant before the visit
• Access to the attic if the chimney runs through it
• A clear path to the roof and the side yard
• The owner or manager reachable to approve the scope