Chimney Repair and Rebuilding in Orange, NJ

Most chimney leaks people call about are not coming from inside the chimney at all. They start at the crown, the concrete cap on top, once it cracks and lets water soak down into the brick below, or they start where the flashing meets the roof shingles and has come loose or rusted through. Both of those are fixable without touching the rest of the chimney, and we look at both before we talk about anything bigger.

Brick is a different story. Freeze and thaw cycles here in New Jersey work water into small cracks in old mortar and brick face, then freeze it, and that is what turns into spalling, flaking, and eventually brick loose enough to move by hand. On a chimney that far gone, repointing the joints is not enough, and the stack needs to come down and get rebuilt in new brick from the roofline up, or sometimes from the ground up if the base has gone too.

Liners crack too, usually from age or from a chimney fire nobody knew happened, and a cracked liner is a safety issue as much as a leak issue since it is what keeps heat and gas away from the wood framing around it.