Chimney repair with a free inspection in West Colonial

Fix the water source before the stain

A stain on the ceiling is where a leak ends, not where it starts. Repainting it, replacing drywall or scrubbing the brick before the water is stopped means paying for the same fix twice, because the mark can come back with the next hard rain.

BIA guidance on maintaining brick says to investigate and find the moisture source before attempting repairs meant to correct water entry. It also suggests a visual check for an obvious source, such as missing or deteriorated materials, before any deeper investigation, since that may save time and money.

So the order on your estimate runs from the source outward. The repair that stops the water comes first, and interior touch-ups or cleaning come after, once the leak is fixed and the masonry has had time to dry. For homeowners in West Colonial, that order keeps the money on the part that is actually failing.

Overhang and drip edge keep water off the faces

Rain leaving a chimney top has to fall clear of the brick, or it runs down the faces and soaks in. BIA guidance shows the cap overhanging the faces. Where a cap does not overhang, it calls for the last two courses of brick to be corbeled out to form a drip, to help reduce the water running down the face.

A drip edge is also required by the Florida Building Code on the cap of a masonry chimney. The drip is simply the edge that water falls from, set out beyond the brick so the water drops free instead of creeping back to the masonry.

You can often read a missing drip from the ground. Streaks, dark wet patches or white deposits that start just under the top and spread down the faces can point to water leaving the top the wrong way. A flush top with those marks gets its own estimate line for a cap that overhangs.

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 West Colonial 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

Cracks near the base of an outside chimney

An outside chimney is heavy, and it sits on its own footing of concrete or solid masonry, as the Florida Building Code requires. BIA guidance on chimney construction says soil conditions and type should be accounted for when that foundation is designed.

When the support below moves, the chimney above it shows the signs. BIA maintenance guidance treats the signs listed here as structural, and it puts structural issues outside the scope of ordinary maintenance.

Our crew notes what the base shows and where the cracks run. For homeowners in West Colonial, the estimate says plainly when the next step is an engineer's evaluation rather than a mortar patch, and it holds back any masonry repair that depends on the answer.

• Cracks that run through several bricks near the ground
• Stepped or diagonal cracks in the lower courses
• Masonry at the base that bulges or has moved out of plane