Water can get in to many unwanted places and do costly damage before you even know that there is a problem. I could write about many different areas of concern, but today I am going to talk specifically about chimneys and chimney crowns. I’ll leave the other areas for a future article, so keep coming back and learning, and remember to tell your friends! Ok, chimneys, how does water damage chimneys? Like anything that ages, chimneys will start to crack and deteriorate. We get older and get wrinkles; houses get older and get cracks. (Sorry to remind you of that, ☺ The biggest area that I routinely see doing inspections is the crown cracking. What is a crown, you ask?

The crown is really just a roof for your chimney. As you can see the crown in the picture above is in bad shape. Water is leaking into all of the areas of deterioration and getting into the brick. In the winter, the water will freeze and expand and the face of the brick under the crown will pop off. This is how a small problem turns into a big problem. If the cracks in the crown were repaired, the mortar and brick would not get damaged. As part of your monthly checklists, it is suggested in April and October to evaluate the chimney to help avoid this from happening. If you do not have a weather cap installed on your chimney, you should consider adding one. This will help keep rain, debris, and rodents from entering your chimney and are relatively easy to install. I was once inspecting a house and while trying to get the fireplace damper open, discovered a raccoon inside of the flue! Wouldn’t of happened if there was a weather cap on the chimney. Well, what if you already have damage that needs repaired? Who does this kind of work? A chimney sweep is your best bet when working with a chimney, although a mason or general contractor can sometimes do the job also. The main thing is to regularly evaluate your chimney and fix any small problems before they turn into bigger and more costly ones. As your online source for home maintenance advice and tips, keep checking back for more information, and be sure to contact our list of contractors as needed. If you know someone who can learn from our site, let them know about us!