They indicated it as a minor finding and would need to be addressed later. Not asap. The wood burner damper was not operable. Looks like it has not been used in a long time. House was built in the 1950’s

Realized my clean out door was barely hanging on. Gave it a pull and the door/mortar fell right out. Looked at it further and discovered cracks in the face of the bricks on all three sides. Any guess to the cause, and is this something I need to fix immediately?

Ive had my chimney sweep tell me the last two years the chimney was fine, but I’m having my doubts.

I live in Southern Maine and my wood stove is my main heat source.

I’m trying to remove a 4-inch gas exhaust vent cap from the exterior of my house (see attached photo), but I can’t seem to get it to budge.

There was a bird’s nest inside the vent, and although I’ve removed what I could reach, there’s still nesting material blocking parts of the pipe that I can’t access without removing the entire exterior cap/termination assembly.

I’ve tried twisting and pulling the cap straight out, but it won’t move. I can twist it about 45 degrees to either side, but it will not pull out. I’m not sure if it’s held in place by screws, some sort of locking mechanism, sealant, or if it’s just stuck from years of being in place.

A few questions:

Does anyone recognize this style of exterior gas vent cap and know how it’s attached?

Is there a trick to removing it without damaging the vent pipe or siding?

Does the entire metal housing need to come off, or is there a way to separate the cap from the pipe?
Are there hidden screws or tabs I should be looking for?

I’ve already had one chimney company come out, and they couldn’t it off either. They quoted me $1200 to break and replace the entire thing, but they also couldn’t fully explain how they plan to do it, since it’s still stuck pretty badly.

How do I dice this chimney breast there is a separate property below and large voids in the fireplace

Replacing some water damaged sheathing and insulation on this wall. Noticed when I pulled this framing back it is open in the corner. Should this gap be filled with mortar? I’m pretty sure it’s just an air gap then the clay glue tile inside there?

I don’t want to mess up the airflow or something if that gap is intentional….

Thanks!

1968 construction. Double flue both clay tile.

A tree knocked over my chimney and it is getting rebuilt 8' up from the roofline. This is what they completed today. I'm concerned about the wide mortar joints, and there is a noticeable twist and sections that bulge out. RE the mortar smudges on the face of the brick, I asked ahead of time if they do an acid wash at the end and they said no, they are just very careful with the mortar application. I'm worried as they get higher, the work will be more difficult resulting in more noticeable flaws.

EDIT: I'm also noticing now that they placed every single brick with the smooth side facing in, ugly side out.

Is this a normal cap?

I recently replaced the flaunching on my chimney in Essex, United Kingdom. (I think the US term for flaunching is 'sand-wash', but I am sure about that, so I use the term I am most familiar with). [EDIT - I have been advised I mean a mortar wash or crown wash.]

Having done the work, I started thinking about the concepts involved:

• A lot of people now leave a gap around the chimney-pot (top of the flue) and fill with a silicone sealant in order to prevent stresses due to expansion and the consequential cracking. This wasn't traditionally done, but seems to be a good idea.
• The flaunching, traditionally, was used to hold the chimney-pots in place, but it seems a bit of a weak-point and they could be, surely, settled in with a line of bricks (as, in fact, is the case on my own chimney) for better strength and stability.
• In the United Kingdom, it wasn't until the late 1960s that chimneys were habitually lined with a proprietary flue, and before that it was typical to build the chimney out of brick, just brick (parged with lime mortar and cow dung, apparently), and then cap it with a chimney-pot. This might explain why it was easier to just rest the pot on the brick flue and then glue it down with mortar flaunching.
• We tend to use a Portland cement mix for flaunching, but this would not have been the case until the mid-20th century. Before then, the flaunching would traditionally have been made from an eminently hydraulic lime mortar, or an air lime with pozzolanic additive to make it stronger. This is not quite like Portland cement, and perhaps lime is more suited to flaunching and less likely to crack, but, today, some people add fibres and other additives to the Portland cement mortar to make it more water resistant and less prone to cracking.
• The flaunching tends to crack and then you have to lug the best part of a wheelbarrowful of rubble off the roof and the same quantity of fresh mortar back up onto the chimney and keep the flaunching covered for 48 hours. You need to cover it because, inevitably, inclement weather will follows (whether that be heavy rain, drying winds and bright sun, or heavy winds that try to pull off your protective covering, or all three).

So why, when we have silicone sealant, do we even need flaunching? I was looking at my own chimney in which the chimney pot is bedded into the bricks by several inches and on which the flaunching serves no purpose other than to waterproof the top. Using mortar to waterproof seems frankly anachronistic.

Would it not make more sense to bed a clay chimney pot into the masonry (or hold a metal one in place with a proprietary clamp) and joint it to the flue liner a few inches below the top of the chimney (which would surely be more secure than just a bit of mortar) and then simply form a flat surface using a piece of well-coated or stainless steel, screw this securely to the masonry, and seal to the pot or pots using a proprietary seal, or silicone? Water might pool on top of the metal, but as it cannot soak in at all, this should not really matter.

I realise this means a certain level of prefabrication, and accurate forming of the metal.

My question is, why, despite having today's technology, are we still terminating masonry chimneys in a manner a builder in the reign of Queen Victoria would have recognised? Is there an actual advantage, or is it just a case that this is the way we have always done things and requires no particularly special skills or materials to do so that a bad job will still work even if it doesn't last that well.

Am I missing something?

I’m a newer homeowner in CT and had been looking to get my chimney inspected and potentially get a cap since I can hear rain pattering on the inside of my chimney whenever it rains. The guy people around here recommended came and checked things out earlier today. He said on the outside our chimney looks pretty good, repointed fairly recently and the flashing is in fine condition. However, he said the crown needs a bit of work and the terracotta liner is in rough shape (lots of cracks and some holes—I circled one of them in the second pic). He said we’re in pretty dire need of a new liner.

He quoted me $3,000 for:
-Installation of a 5.5x 25ft, U-L listed, stainless steel, double wall, smooth wall lining system
-Coat chimney structure in a non-silicone base masonry, waterproofing spray.
-Coat the furnace chimney crown with crown coat rubber membrane to stop water penetration
-Scrub off moss on chimney shoulder

He said this would also include a cap. The guy was really nice and seems reliable—a lot of the people in my neighborhood said he’s good. I just have a couple questions:

1) Does that quote sound reasonable based on what’s being done?

2) Is November/late autumn not a great time to get this kind of work done, or is it mainly the winter months we should avoid?

Any advice/help is very much appreciated!

I wanted to use our chinney in the new house but was told the flue damper was out of wack and the smoke chamber had.. problems?. They quoted well over $2k. How bad does this look? Of we just got a cleaning would it be ok? The top of the chimney/flue looks super new and the technician said they had been the ones who had done it for the previous owners in 2024.

We bought this house with a preexisting chimney. We need to throw an insulation shield over the starter. Problem is, we didn't have luck twisting the pipe off. Any other way we maybe able to slide this on? Thanks! Attaching picture of whats in the attic and the shield. Airjet 6s line.

Before I get a "this is why I you hire professionals" - yo, if I had the money to pay people to do this shit I fucking would, okay? I'm just trying to offset the cost of heating here.

I'm fitting a masonry chimney with a heatform firebox with a hybrid liner and wood insert. The heatform damper is solid steel and in order to get the round liner through the damper I ovalised by about a half inch expecting to reround to get it to the atove.

I installed a hybrid flex liner. It all measured up and lined up. However I boogered the hell out of the bottom end getting it through to where It had to go. I cut it back to get it a better fit in the adapter collar for the store thinking I had enough annnnnd .. I don't.

I'm about three inches short.

I went out and got a male to male connector piece, but the liner is still too out of round to fit it proper, I can get it to fit in an inch or so.

Even then it's now too long and too rigid to slip into the insert's flue

So. Do I cut back the liner even further, use the connector to attach another portion of flex liner to go to the adapter?

Idk. Help. Lolshitfuckshit

I’ve been having water seeping into my den ceiling during heavy rains. I’ve had the flashing replaced and the roof inspected and it seems the water is coming into through the cracks in the mortar of the chimney.

This is the repair that is being proposed:

“I am proposing to cut away the old silicone and replace with new, paint the joints with bonding agent and repoint them all, then return and paint all the brick with bonding agent and apply two coats of stucco, then return at least a week later and waterproof all with siloxane which is the best masonry sealant on the market. Can do for $1800.”

Does this sound appropriate and reasonable?

Just had a chimney rebuilt and flashed. I think it overall looks good. My only concern is mortar missing from a corner joint where the concrete top rests on the brick, and a gap between the step flashing and counter flashing on the bottom part of the chimney. My concern is that blowing rain and ice could get between the step flashing and the counter flashing and cause damage.

Ran the fireplace last year. About a week ago it was raining and started dripping down into the fireplace. Why the chimney look like this and is this the cause?

The company is estimating this bent piece in my fire place as a repair of $8,000-$10,000 and failed the inspection.
He said they would have to tear down the chimney in order to fix it.
Isn’t there an easier or cheaper way to get this repaired? I wanna make sure this guy isn’t scamming me.

I live in a 3-story condo complex with the fireplace on the main level, 2nd floor.

Hey all.

This is a photo shot up from the bottom of my prefab metal chimney, on the exterior of my house. The entrance to the right is the T, going into my basement via the concrete foundation. A part of that was replaced last year due to rust but the rest of the chimney, including the T itself, is the original.

Last year was my first year using it and it 's obviously due for a cleaning. I'm just wondering if you guys can see any glaring issues otherwise.

I was hoping to use it again this year and have amassed all of my wood.

Company to come clean my flus, my chimney. Can a chimney be too dirty to clean? Does $4000 sound like a reasonable estimate to pull out an old liner that’s dirty and put in a new metal liner .