Chimney repair with a free inspection in South Eola

Worn mortar joints let water in

Mortar joints are often where water gets into a brick chimney. BIA maintenance guidance says moisture may penetrate brick masonry through unbonded, cracked or deteriorated joints, and it lists the conditions that call for repointing.

Light scraping with a metal tool and a close look show where mortar has gone soft. The same guidance calls repointing, sometimes known as tuckpointing, one of the most effective ways to reduce moisture penetration, and it advises repointing all the joints in the affected wall area, since it can be hard to tell which joints are letting water through.

Worn joints on homes in South Eola are routed to our chimney tuckpointing service. The estimate marks each wall area to be repointed.

• Mortar eroded back from the brick face
• Mortar that crumbles or has voids
• Hairline cracks in the mortar
• Cracks between the brick and the mortar

Offsets and corbeled sections in a chimney

Not every chimney rises in a straight line. Some step out from a wall or jog sideways partway up, built by corbeling, where each course of brick projects a little past the one below. The Florida Building Code limits how far a chimney may be corbeled from a wall or foundation and how far any single course may project.

It limits offsets as well. In a chimney with a clay flue liner and one wythe of masonry around it, the center of the flue above an offset may not extend beyond the center of the chimney wall below, unless approved masonry support sits under the offset.

Because the code limits both, cracks at a corbel or an offset get a closer look than cracks in a straight run. When cracks show there, the estimate says whether the section is sound enough to repair or has to be rebuilt.

Factory-built chimneys take their own listed parts

A factory-built chimney is a tested system. The Florida Building Code requires it to be listed and labeled, and installed and terminated per the manufacturer's instructions. The listing belongs to the whole system, which in one maker's instructions runs from the pipe and supports through firestops and shields to the chase top and cap.

That is why a generic part is a problem even when it fits. Those instructions, DuraVent's for its DuraChimney II chimney, say to use only its authorized parts, not to mix parts from other systems and not to improvise. A section borrowed from another brand or a cap bent up from sheet metal leaves the chimney outside the conditions it was tested under.

Before any part is quoted, the chimney's maker and model have to be known. On a chimney in South Eola, our technicians read the label where it can be reached and write the maker and model on the estimate, so each replacement matches the system already in the house. If the system can no longer be matched, that is said plainly.

Chimney repairs before you sell

Chimney findings that surface during a buyer's inspection arrive late, when there is little time left to get quotes and the price is already being negotiated. Few repair decisions are made well under that kind of deadline.

Having the chimney looked at before listing replaces guesses with specifics. You learn which repairs affect safety or water entry and which are cosmetic. Then you decide what to fix and what to disclose, with your agent and, where it matters, your attorney. We give no legal advice on disclosure.

The free inspection comes with a written estimate that lists each component and its repair separately. Homeowners in South Eola can share that estimate with buyers as it stands, fix everything on it, or fix the safety items and let the rest be priced into the sale. Either way, the buyer sees named components instead of a vague warning.