CAP or NO CAP ?

[ansehnlich1]

My wife and I are driving around right, we see a whole bunch of masonry chimneys, like, most of 'em are masonry. Brick or block.

Anyway, I know some are for woodstoves, some regular old fireplaces, some are for the good ole' oil burner/furnace. Many, and I mean, many.... don't have a cap at all. Just a clay liner sticking out.

So, I'm thinking, what happens when there's 2 inches of rain??? Where's that water go? I mean, if you put a bucket outside and it rains 2 inches, how much water is in the bucket? So where's that water go when it goes down all those chimneys?

Anyway, we have an outside 24 x 24 inch brick chimney, and it has an 8x8 (7x7 interior) dimension clay liner running up through it. So there's about a 4 inch air space surrounding the liner all the way up. This chimney sits on am 8 inch poured concrete porch slab, and directly under where the chimney is there are 2 concrete haunches that go to the footer buried 8 feet down in the ground. I'm thinking if I don't have a cap I get water laying at the bottom of the clay liner on that concrete porch slab.

What say you? Deal or no deal? uh, I mean, CAP or NO CAP???

 

[iceman]

My wife and I are driving around right, we see a whole bunch of masonry chimneys, like, most of 'em are masonry. Brick or block.

Anyway, I know some are for woodstoves, some regular old fireplaces, some are for the good ole' oil burner/furnace. Many, and I mean, many.... don't have a cap at all. Just a clay liner sticking out.

So, I'm thinking, what happens when there's 2 inches of rain??? Where's that water go? I mean, if you put a bucket outside and it rains 2 inches, how much water is in the bucket? So where's that water go when it goes down all those chimneys?

Anyway, we have an outside 24 x 24 inch brick chimney, and it has an 8x8 (7x7 interior) dimension clay liner running up through it. So there's about a 4 inch air space surrounding the liner all the way up. This chimney sits on am 8 inch poured concrete porch slab, and directly under where the chimney is there are 2 concrete haunches that go to the footer buried 8 feet down in the ground. I'm thinking if I don't have a cap I get water laying at the bottom of the clay liner on that concrete porch slab.

What say you? Deal or no deal? uh, I mean, CAP or NO CAP???

always cap it helps keep out rain and other things that try to make a home in there

 

[babalu87]

Rain, snow, Owls

 

[Highbeam]

I always thought that the water would exit through the ash cleanout in the bottom. It has to be going somewhere and they've built chimneys for centuries without caps.

 

[Hogwildz]

Being on the side of the country that settlements started. Many (not all) of the 200+ yr old homes have some type of cap. Usually the older places have a stone cap of some sort, many blue stone caps in PA. Fact is, open top, things go down, as stated animals, birds, rain, snow. Covered no rain or snow, covered and screened, no rain, snow, birds, or animals. Take your pick.

 

[stonehouse]

I have a crummy metal cap now. Have to do a blue stone over the summer. I added the cap though. 195 years without one. Bats would fly in all the time and scare s a bit.

 

[Hogwildz]

I have a crummy metal cap now. Have to do a blue stone over the summer. I added the cap though. 195 years without one. Bats would fly in all the time and scare s a bit.

Thats going to be a lot of fun getting that heavy mutha up there.

 

[mheller]

I put a 24 x 36 piece of pa blue stone on top of old masonary chimney, looks great. i cut a 8 x 8 hole in it with 4"grinder with diamond masonary blade for liner to come out top. top plate covered hole and we siliconed it to the blue stone. i almost killed myself trying to get it up there. then my 2 twenty year kids took over. they made it look easy.

 

[Hogwildz]

I could never get my kid to do chit. Hes in college at West Chester U now. I made friends with some great neighbors here though. We help each other.

 

[stonehouse]

I have a crummy metal cap now. Have to do a blue stone over the summer. I added the cap though. 195 years without one. Bats would fly in all the time and scare s a bit.

Thats going to be a lot of fun getting that heavy mutha up there.

Right? There must have been some crazy wood riggings to build this place. I'll need a pulley or 2 for the cap. Oh yea, there's two chimneys, one works, both need caps.

 

[DriftWood]

22’ CPD Divemaster….RIP

Another reason to install and not remove those chimney caps or spark screens.

“I think ashes from our wood stove fell on top of the fir duff on the flat garage roof after a very dry sept ...

Served San Diego Navy Seals til GSA Auction Feb 06.
Restoration target: Provide rescue towing, crew boat and recreation on the lower Columbia River”

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/013311.html

It was not my boat. It was a members boat on www.Continuouswave.com a Boston Whaler Information site.

 

[Beanscoot]

I live in a neighbourhood with houses from the 1910s to 1960s. About 80-90%, including me, have no cap. Keep in mind that I live about 100 miles north of Seattle, in a "Temperate Rain Forest". I've only heard of one person with a slight water seepage around his chimney base. I think most of the rain hits the bricks on the way down the chimney and evaporates back up the chimney. I was thinking about installing a cap but it doesn't appear important, and would be in the way for cleaning or examining the flues.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I live in a neighbourhood with houses from the 1910s to 1960s. About 80-90%, including me, have no cap. Keep in mind that I live about 100 miles north of Seattle, in a "Temperate Rain Forest". I've only heard of one person with a slight water seepage around his chimney base. I think most of the rain hits the bricks on the way down the chimney and evaporates back up the chimney. I was thinking about installing a cap but it doesn't appear important, and would be in the way for cleaning or examining the flues.

Now, you see, this right here is what I was talking about. Around here there's dang few stainless chimneys showing through people's roofs, most are brick or block, outside wall of house, or inside coming up through roof. Most all have a clay liner, and the majority HAVE NO CAP.

I can't see water hitting any brick or block on the INSIDE of one of these chimenys as long as the crown is in good shape, the water will go IN THE CLAY LINER!

Now if all these homes are like this, burning wood, oil, fireplace, or whatever, and they have no cap, what gives???

AND, they ain't had no cap for years, many for 30, 40, 50+ years.......

 

[Beanscoot]

I don't know the details of chimney base construction, but perhaps the builders put a foot or so of gravel at the bottom so rain water that made it down the chimney would drain down below the basement floor level? Then it would just soak into the ground under the floor or slab.

 

[Girl]

I had a cat that used to go outside at night & end up in the house in morning.
Sometime she would be in the attic.
Other times in the basement, there could of been some kind of hole in the secret room behind the chimney maybe.
She also came down the fireplace in the kitchen which we saw.
They where original cast iron dampers that where like jaws easy for her to squeeze through.
It all depended on which turn she took where she would end up.
This was a house built in the 1700's, no cap or cap like top.

 

[Hogwildz]

I don't know the details of chimney base construction, but perhaps the builders put a foot or so of gravel at the bottom so rain water that made it down the chimney would drain down below the basement floor level? Then it would just soak into the ground under the floor or slab.

Do the squirrels, raccoons birds, bats etc soak into that gravel also? Fireplaces have been used for centuries also, why use a efficient stove or insert, why not just use the fireplace? As I said, to each their own choice.

 

[Beanscoot]

Hi Burning Chunk,
That must have been a really neat house you lived in! I'd love to have an ancient house with all the weird hidden spaces and centuries old features. My house is 1914 vintage. Very few houses here are older than 1900.

I've never noticed animals in my chimney, but occasionally have raccoons on the roof which drives my cat crazy.

 

[BrotherBart]

The old insert burned into a 8 x 12 tile flue for 21 years with no cap and never a sign of water, squirrels, cats, grizzlies or anything else in there.

The one next to it only had occasional burning until two years ago and nothing in it either.

 

[ansehnlich1]

The old insert burned into a 8 x 12 tile flue for 21 years with no cap and never a sign of water, squirrels, cats, grizzlies or anything else in there.

The one next to it only had occasional burning until two years ago and nothing in it either.

grizzlies? holy batcrap man, that'd be scary!

made me laugh for sure....

I had a sweep with 23 years experience check my chimney the other day, he and his son. They took the cap off my chimney and told me to leave it off til spring, put it back on before the birds start nesting and such. This sweep said the cap off would decrease the amount of creosote around my top tile as the cap restricts the smoke exiting the chimney, causing it to swirl around up there for a spell prior to moving out from under the cap......

I ain't concerned about no animals down in there, it's the water that I wanted to know about. I just can't get it right in my head how so dang many masonry chimneys around here have no caps, nada, none, and they've been that way for years, and it don't look like the brick is fallin' apart on 'em, or the block for that matter.

 

[Hogwildz]

Another thing to consider is a cap with a screen acts as a spark arrestor. Living in the woods as I do, I'll keep the cap. I'd hate to explain to the neighbors why their house burned down possibly along with mine due to a stray spark or ember going up and out into the woods.

 

[Chili]

ok after lurking around for months i just signed up the other day.. here i am.. now, a friend made, out of sign aluminum, a great chimney cap for me 12+ inch vertical opening -real big! the chimney contains two flue's; one for the first floor fireplace , which we never use... and the other for the downstairs (mantown) fieplace which we use nightly from 7-10.. once a month or so, the thing gets tempermental, low pressure, or not preheating the chimney enough or, snow covering the flue, we had a rough snow fall last year here in NH.. and some smoke rolls out into the downstairs room.. -now, figuring the cap would eliminate the snow blockage (tired of climbing the ladder after each heavy snow and clearing it off), we installed it this last weekend.. THAT NIGHT, my wife commented about a small smoke smell upstairs.. --i assume some room air must be leaking up the chimney (and down) from the upstairs fireplace.. could it be that the new cap is re directing some smoke from the downstairs flue back down to the first floor fireplace and into the room?? did i mention the thing is gigantic? i can't figure the thing is restricting any air flow!

i have thoughts of sealing the unused flue up on top of the chimney if that is my problem..

the house is 30+ lots of air leakage... did i mention when i start a fire, i make sure the FHA furnace is not running?

thoughts??

chili..

 

[savageactor7]

When we had our chimney completely rebuilt a few years back the mason just about flat out refused to put any type of cap on...said they caused more problems than they solved. I had it in my mind that I wanted one even though our old chimney didn't have one...to make a long story short.... so no cap for us.

 

[Hogwildz]

If both exhaust flues are at same level, same height, you may want to consider raising one a foot or so above the other. Or if the fireplace is not used, cap that one off.
What you prolly have is the exhaust from one going down the other. Cap the unused off or raise one or the other.

 

[BrotherBart]

Hog nailed it. It is pulling the smoke down the other flue. Common problem with a shared cap.

 

[Chili]

thanks HOG, the primary one IS about 4" higher than the unused one, but it IS in front to the prevailing wind. so it must be leaking in/down, capping off the unused is the next step, or tell the wife i don't smell a thing... yah..