Leaky chimney wash- need triple cap.

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newatthis

newatthis

Member
Aug 28, 2014
157
Charlottesville, VA
Below are pictures showing our large interior chimney, with three flues. About to get our insert installed. As you can see from the broken-out mortar, we have a moisture problem. A few years ago we had a new wash/crown installed which solved our interior leak problem for awhile, but it is creeping back. (We are getting a new roof and will address possible flashing problems shortly.)

The wash now has some cracks, and we are noticing two divots where the water can puddle- not sure if that developed over time or that we just didn't notice it before.

The post below about chimney caps made me realize that if we had a single cap that covered all 3 flues, and also covered much more/nearly all of the surface area of the wash, that would help. The mason wants to put a water repellent coat on the wash.

Here are my questions. We would rather do this right the first time.

Break out the old wash and replace it?

Use the water-repellent coating +/- a more extensive combination cap?

Can a really large cap cover most/all of the wash surface area? It doesn't seem like the options on Gelco and Olympia include large flanges that cover most/all of the surface area. Any reason not to do this, such as more likely to get torn off by high winds? Could a triple cap be hinged to allow cleaning?
 

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A large cap will work but you also need some repointing done and your cap will have to be pretty high because of the steep slope on that wash crown. We have pretty much stopped doing wash crowns and instead pour a slab on almost all of the ones we do it is allot more durable. Gelco, Olimpia and many othercaps are not hinged the tops are held on by a few bolts and pull of easily for maintenance.
 
These are very helpful, thank you. Bholler, would you take off the crown as it is now, or make do with a large cap? We will be putting a metal roof on after all the chimney work (which will include repointing), and don't want to have a lot of work done on a pristine roof. Crash, bang, dent!
 
We have not had much luck with crown seal we have found that it doesn't adhere well and comes off after a couple years unless the crown is in really good shape in which case you don't need it. I would probably take it off and pour a crown then put the cap on but just the cap will work fine
 
You can always cover the old crown with a sheetmetal cap pan. S.S., copper etc. Then install a large chimney cap over the 3 flues.
Keep in mind, the other two flues being of same height, may create a drawl of the stove exhaust down one or both of the other flues. If not in use, close them off, if in use, extend them making them different heights.
 
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I kept having issues with water at random times. Your bricks step out for "looks". These are water infiltration points! What really needs to be done, is cast a new concrete crown that has an overhang to prevent water from running down the bricks. Also where the crown tapers down to the brick is another place asking for a leak. There is always a seperation right there, water rolls off of the crown and onto the top of the first brick. An overhang will resolve your issues. Here's my crown that I cast in place, no more leaks since.
 

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Yes webby that is exactly what we do usually then cut a drip groove into the bottom of that overhang. Corbeled chimneys look great but not very good as far as water infiltration.
 
bholler said:
We have not had much luck with crown seal we have found that it doesn't adhere well and comes off after a couple years unless the crown is in really good shape in which case you don't need it. I would probably take it off and pour a crown then put the cap on but just the cap will work fine
Click to expand...

thats crazy, my experience is the opposite.... the ones we've done over the years are in great shape still.
surface prep is important, cleaning and scraping off any loose material, and wetting the crown before application. And not applying too thick!

have your guys watch the video before doing it, its a great product



crown seal after.jpg crown seal before.jpg

Note: we didn't put the funky cap on this and tried to sell her the proper cap...
 
We have had chimney saver reps at our workshops give demos and yes we followed the instructions. Yeah if the crown is nice and solid with just a few cracks it works fine but it wont fix much more than that in my experience. We found that usually if they fail it is because the crack where the crown meets the chimney has opened up and let water in as soon as that happens it peels pretty quickly. The problem is if there is no bond break between the liner and the crown when the liner expands it will lift the crown and i don't care how good the sealant is it cant stand up to that for all that long. I think crown seal has its place and we do use it occasionally but lots of guys seem to think it will fix all the problems and that is just not true.
 
agree with you there, crown seal isn't meant to fix much worse...
as an example, the crown in the picture above- if the damage was much worse we would have chiseled off the old mortar and replaced it with fresh mortar first
 
Yeah that one didn't look very bad and there was no crack at the edge
 
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