How to Maintain and Repair Your Chimney

Make your chimney last for decades with a few hours of simple maintenance

Fourth dimension

A few hours

Complexity

Intermediate

Introduction

Cracks and spalling in a brick chimney can get worse fast, but the fix is easy if you do information technology in time. Ii pros share maintenance tips that will go along your chimney solid for the life of the firm.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Brushable crown sealer
  • Chimney cap
  • Disposable gloves
  • Duct tape
  • H2o repellent

Chimney nuts

Chimney inspection

cracks Family Handyman

The cracks in this chimney crown have reached a disquisitional signal. If not sealed soon, they'll destroy the crown and eventually the chimney.

Virtually homeowners never retrieve virtually masonry chimney maintenance beyond the occasional flue cleaning. But ignoring your chimney can cost you big-time. A croaky chimney crown or spalling bricks tin can easily price $1,000 to repair. And, if left untreated, the impairment can advance speedily, and cost you upward of $iii,000.

It doesn't accept to be that mode. By simply sealing the bricks and the crown and adding a chimney cap, you lot'll greatly extend your chimney's life. The materials toll less than $300, and you lot tin complete all iii procedures in just a few hours. You'd pay a pro about $ane,000 to practice all three, and then the savings is huge.

Y'all'll take to climb upwardly on your roof twice (one time to measure out the flue liner to order the right chimney cap and once to perform the procedures). And, yous must be able to safely accomplish the chimney crown from your roof. If you can't attain the chimney crown, have a very steep roof pitch or aren't comfortable working on your roof, call a pro. If y'all decide you lot can handle the heights, make sure you wear a rubber harness.

Meet the Pros

Family unit Handyman

Jim Smart has endemic Smart Sweep Chimney Service for 14 years. He and his son, Jesse, are certified professional chimney sweeps. Together, this father/son team inspects, cleans and repairs chimneys in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. In improver to his chimney sweep certifications, Jim holds a certificate in forensic chimney burn analysis. In other words, Jim understands how chimneys work and neglect. He's a pro's pro.

Project Details

Brushable crown sealer, $sixty

Chimney water repellent, $35

Garden pump sprayer, $35

Stainless steel chimney cap, $125

Tarps, duct tape, paintbrush

Project step-by-step (four)

Stride 1

Start at the chimney crown

Use the showtime coat of chimney sealer by hand

sealer

Scoop upward a handful of the sealer and wipe it onto the crown. Force the sealant into the cracks and into the crown-to-brick seam.

Pace 2

Fifty-fifty out the chimney sealer

brush

Stroke the wet sealant with a brush to level the loftier and low spots and create a smooth surface.

Masonry chimneys are capped with a mortar 'crown' to prevent water from getting behind the bricks and alongside the flue, and into the house. Over time, normal expansion and contraction cycles tin cause cracks to course, as shown to a higher place. Sealing the chimney crown with crown sealer, a flexible elastomeric coating, is the best way to cease existing cracks from spreading and prevent new ones.

Choose a clear or clouded day for the project (no rain in the forecast for at to the lowest degree four hours). Prepare the crown by cleaning it with a potent poly or nylon brush. Fill any large cracks with patching cement or 100 pct silicone caulk (they'll cure even after you lot apply the crown sealer).

Adjacent, wrap duct tape all around the crown well-nigh i/iv in. below the edge of the crown-to-brick seam. Press the tape into the vertical brick joints. And then tape around each flue liner i in. above the crown. Lay canvas (not plastic) tarps effectually the base of operations of the chimney to protect the shingles from crown sealer drips.

Our chimney repair expert applies crown sealer by hand so he can forcefulness it into cracks and become the first glaze done faster. If you choose that method, merely slip on a dispensable glove and apply the sealer (Photo 1). (One brand is Chimney RX Brushable Crown Repair; sold by the gallon at saversystems.com) Cover the unabridged crown and then smoothen it with a paintbrush (Photo ii). Wait until the sealer dries tacky to the touch on, so apply a second coat with a brush. Make clean up with water.

Step iii

Seal the chimney bricks

Spray the brick with water repellent

Spray

Start at the bottom of the chimney and spray the brick until the backlog repellent runs downwardly about 8 in. beneath the spray line. Work your way up to the top. Apply a second glaze within five minutes using the aforementioned technique.

Once the crown sealer feels dry out to the affect (30 to 60 minutes), remove the duct record merely leave the roof tarps in place. Then mask off whatever painted chimney flashings earlier applying the water repellent. Spray on the repellent (one make is Chimney RX Masonry Chimney Water Repellent; sold at saversystems.com) with a low-pressure, garden pump sprayer (Photo three).

Step four

Finish it off with a chimney cap

Install the cap

cap

You don't want animals getting into your chimney. Ready the cap (run into chimney cap cost higher up) over the flue liner and secure it with screws. Tighten until snug, but no more than. Excessive pressure can crack the clay liner.

A chimney cap keeps water and critters out of your flue and extends flue life. Many codes require a mesh cap, so bank check before buying. Chimney expert Jim Smart recommends spending extra to get a stainless steel cap because information technology will terminal much longer than the galvanized type. 1 source for stainless steel caps is efireplacestore.com

You lot'll need the exterior dimensions of the flue liner to go the right size cap for your chimney. Then install it on the flue liner (Photograph 4).

Originally Published: Feb 28, 2022