Chimney Repair

[StickSalute]

Hello,

My wife and I purchased a house recently with a gorgeous masonry fireplace. The previous owners used it quite a bit, and we are excited to do so, too.

The home inspection noted a few small cracks that we knew we wanted to look at, but the inspection the owners had done a few months earlier said everything was in good shape.

Anyways, I brought a different company out to look at repairing things, and they started saying that we needed to completely replace the crown and repair the flue tile joints in.both chimneys (upper and lower fireplace) for a total of $5000 or something. That caught us off guard, so we went back to the original inspector and had them come back and look. They took a long time to finally come out, and when they did, they agreed that their previous inspection wasn't well done and cleaned out some creosote, did some patching in one firebox and then sealed some small cracks up on the crown. He said everything was in great shape now.

I don't really know what to believe at this point, whether the one is being overly cautious/trying to get me to pay for a bunch of stuff or if the other is being careless or doesn't want to fix things. I'm attaching some pictures of the flue tiles from up top as well as one of the chimney crown with some of the cracks and some brick damage. Does anyone have some suggestions based on this? Is it enough to just patch the cracks and then have a mason come repair that bit of brick work? Do the flue tiles and joints look alright from what you can see here? I don't really know what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

 

[billb3]

I like trying to keep the rain, snow and ice off the top and out of the flues.

 

[begreen]

Well, it's nice and clean. Looks like there may still be a diagonal crack in one flue tile and the crown needs repair or replacement.

 

[bholler]

You have brick spalling it needs repointed and a new crown . And the mortar joint I can see is really bad

 

[trail guy Mike]

We just paid 3k for a new crown on our stone chimney and tuck-pointing all the way down. Deterioration of mortar was worse on ours, with one top stone having fallen onto the roof.
A chimney crown should overhang a couple inches all the way around, so water does not run down all your mortar joints. Up above the roof, strong winds will drive that water into the smallest gaps; then it freezes, and mortar goes to powder.

Caps on your flues would stop most water from reaching the joint between the clay tiles and the concrete. That's why your crown is cracked.

We thought the price was a bit steep, and it took 3 young men 3 short days to earn their 3000. But for a 22 year old house with maybe no prior service, it's understandable. This work should last for the duration.

If you run a stainless steel liner down your flue, maybe you don't need to worry about joints or cracks in there?

 

[bholler]

We just paid 3k for a new crown on our stone chimney and tuck-pointing all the way down. Deterioration of mortar was worse on ours, with one top stone having fallen onto the roof.
A chimney crown should overhang a couple inches all the way around, so water does not run down all your mortar joints. Up above the roof, strong winds will drive that water into the smallest gaps; then it freezes, and mortar goes to powder.

Caps on your flues would stop most water from reaching the joint between the clay tiles and the concrete. That's why your crown is cracked.

We thought the price was a bit steep, and it took 3 young men 3 short days to earn their 3000. But for a 22 year old house with maybe no prior service, it's understandable. This work should last for the duration.

If you run a stainless steel liner down your flue, maybe you don't need to worry about joints or cracks in there?

Actually the crown in the pic cracked because there was no room left for expansion of the clay liner.

 

[Ashful]

We thought the price was a bit steep, and it took 3 young men 3 short days to earn their 3000. But for a 22 year old house with maybe no prior service, it's understandable. This work should last for the duration.

Prices vary by region, but I think you got a good deal. Three masons for three days, plus materials would be double that, around here.

 

[StickSalute]

Thanks for all the great replies. I think I am starting to get a little more comfortable with understanding how all of this works.

We were able to get the original inspector/cleaner to patch/seal the cracks on the cap and around the flue tiles. He also put on some proper caps to keep the rain out of the interior and away from the flue tile/cap joint, so I think that will help. I am also trying to get a mason out to repair that brick. It sounds like that should go a long way, although it seems that the ideal solution is a drip cap that would keep water and such off of the brick face entirely, correct?

As for those pictures looking down the chimney, does that look particularly concerning to anyone that knows more about what they are looking at? Like I said, the one guy said that needed to be lined/sealed to repair the flue tile joints before it is safe to burn. The other guy said it was fine. Any thoughts here (given that you are working off of just these couple pictures and I don't expect any in-depth diagnosis from this)? I just want to know if this is a hazard or major problem vs something that I just need to keep an eye on.

We might end up eventually installing a gas fireplace in one and a wood insert in the other, which would have liners and make the flue tile joints somewhat irrelevant. I just want to know what I need to worry about in the meantime to keep things safe and sound.

Thanks again!

 

[StickSalute]

Does anyone have any suggestions on the flue tile joints? Like I said, I'm just trying to figure out if those are any real concern immediately or just something to keep an eye on or whatever until we potentially switch to inserts with a liner in a few years.

Again, really appreciate the feedback here. It is very helpful for someone with little experience with this stuff.

Thanks!

 

[bholler]

Does anyone have any suggestions on the flue tile joints? Like I said, I'm just trying to figure out if those are any real concern immediately or just something to keep an eye on or whatever until we potentially switch to inserts with a liner in a few years.

Again, really appreciate the feedback here. It is very helpful for someone with little experience with this stuff.

Thanks!

The only joint I can really see is pretty bad. I can say it will cause problems but it certainly isn't right

 

[Ashful]

No opinion on the joints, bholler is a chimney professional, I am not. But on the cap, there is no cap that will keep all rain off the chimney. Rain has a habit of not coming straight down, if there’s any breeze.

Cap normally overhangs chimney a bit, so that rain and snow that collects on cap can drip free, rather than trailing into joint below cap, but that’s about it.

 

[bholler]

Have the Mason pour a crown as well. Just make sure he leaves an expansion joint around the clay so it doesn't crack again