Condition of masonry

[Ctwoodtick]

I keep saying that I’m going to redo the crown of my chimney soon, but I’ll definitely be doing that before this coming burning season. I just went up to take a look at the condition of the machine overall and to see if I needed to put any silicone in any areas around the current crown. I noticed this crack in the mortar joint in between the bricks and was curious if this is something that can be handled by repointing the area or if there is something more that would need to get done. What’s in the picture was the only area I saw this condition. The rest of the chimney joints look like the better part of what is pictured.

 

[Whitenuckler]

I keep saying that I’m going to redo the crown of my chimney soon, but I’ll definitely be doing that before this coming burning season. I just went up to take a look at the condition of the machine overall and to see if I needed to put any silicone in any areas around the current crown. I noticed this crack in the mortar joint in between the bricks and was curious if this is something that can be handled by repointing the area or if there is something more that would need to get done. What’s in the picture was the only area I saw this condition. The rest of the chimney joints look like the better part of what is pictured.

You probably need to leave it be as is. It is very difficult to repoint and make it match. At some point a certain section would need to be rebuilt or taken down permanently. I had masonry guys remove all the brick from an old oil chimney below the soffits. I tried to repoint some missing joints on the remaining, but it's not easy to keep the mortar off the bricks and match it.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Thank for the input. So water isn’t leaking in, should I just put some silicone on it?

 

[bholler]

Thank for the input. So water isn’t leaking in, should I just put some silicone on it?

It needs pointed

 

[Ctwoodtick]

OK, sounds good. I’m not incredibly worried about the mortar being a little bit off compared to the rest.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Thank for the input. So water isn’t leaking in, should I just put some silicone on it?

No, either spend the money for repointing or leave it. I would just leave it.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

It needs pointed

Thank you. Aside from the obvious crack in the joint in the pic, how does the mortar in the intact part look to you? House is 50 yrs old and I’m guessing it’s the original mortar.

 

[BigJ273]

Thank for the input. So water isn’t leaking in, should I just put some silicone on it?

I wouldn’t use silicone. If u ever needed to repoint it in the future the silicone would be a mess to work with on the brick. I’d just repoint it. That’s a very small area. Should be pretty simple.

 

[BigJ273]

Thank you. Aside from the obvious crack in the joint in the pic, how does the mortar in the intact part look to you? House is 50 yrs old and I’m guessing it’s the original mortar.

It looks ok to me. Honestly, a few years back I had my chimney mortar and crown redone. The mason drilled out all the old mortar down to the roof line and repointed it. Then put a new crown on. I was surprised it was only $2k. That may seem like a lot, but it came out really good and revitalized the chimney. He also had to replace the top five rows of brick because they were so deteriorated. He also acid washed the brick and sealed it with sealer. He was there for 5 days working on it so I figured it was a good price.

 

[bholler]

Thank you. Aside from the obvious crack in the joint in the pic, how does the mortar in the intact part look to you? House is 50 yrs old and I’m guessing it’s the original mortar.

It doesn't look bad. If that is the only crack you can ignore it. But if there are more no

 

[HearthOperator]

I keep saying that I’m going to redo the crown of my chimney soon, but I’ll definitely be doing that before this coming burning season. I just went up to take a look at the condition of the machine overall and to see if I needed to put any silicone in any areas around the current crown. I noticed this crack here in the mortar joint in between the bricks and was curious if this is something that can be handled by repointing the area or if there is something more that would need to get done. What’s in the picture was the only area I saw this condition. The rest of the chimney joints look like the better part of what is pictured.

Looking at your photo, that joint definitely looks a bit opened up, but it doesn’t seem like anything structural.

From what I’ve seen on older chimneys, this kind of horizontal separation in a single mortar joint is pretty common from age and weathering. The surrounding mortar actually looks fairly decent for ~50 years, so it doesn’t seem like widespread deterioration.

I’d personally avoid silicone here - like others mentioned, it’ll just make a proper repair harder later. If it were mine, I’d either leave it alone for now (since you’re not getting water intrusion) or just repoint that small section and keep an eye on it over time.

Curious though - is that area more exposed to wind/rain than the rest of the chimney?

 

[Ctwoodtick]

That’s a good question/observation. Wear that crack in the motor is is in the part of the chimney facing south-south west. The prevailing winds typically come out of the west where I am so there may be something to that.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I should mention that over the last year or so I have noticed some beginnings of effluorescence at the very top of the chimney, actually on that side of the chimney as well similar to the crack in the mortar. It looks to be a gray color.Assuming that it is, I’m thinking that a culprit of that is my current chimney crown, which should definitely be replaced soon. Aside from that, I don’t see other signs of water intrusion.