Honest chimney repair for Summerport Beach homeowners

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 Summerport Beach 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

Rebuilding the top from the roofline up

When the damage sits in the stack above the roof, a partial rebuild can start at the roofline. The failed masonry comes down to sound courses, and the new brick goes up with the flashing details and the top built in from the start.

A rebuilt top is built to the Florida Building Code's rules for termination and caps. The chimney has to rise high enough above the roof it passes through and above nearby parts of the building, and a masonry chimney is finished with a concrete, metal or stone cap that has a drip edge and slopes to shed water.

Rebuilding is also the moment to correct a top that was never right, such as one built too short or finished with a flat, thin layer of mortar. This work belongs to our chimney rebuild service, and while the top is open it is covered at the end of each work day, with the debris cleaned up and hauled away. The estimate lists the courses that come down, the new cap and flashing and how the new brick will be matched to the old.

Every masonry chimney needs a sound lining

The Florida Building Code says masonry chimneys shall be lined, and that the lining must suit the type of appliance connected, following that appliance's listing and instructions. The lining is the inner passage the smoke travels through, and it keeps smoke and flue gases inside the flue rather than in the brick around it.

Some chimneys were built without one, and others have a lining that has cracked, shifted or lost pieces. From the room you rarely see it. The clues tend to be indirect, like tile fragments in the firebox or smoke where it should not be.

Because the code requires a lining, a flue without one, or with a broken one, stays out of use until it is repaired. On homes in Summerport Beach, our crew checks the lining from the firebox and from the top, and the estimate says whether the flue needs repair, relining or nothing at all.

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