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Chimney Repair, Rebuilding, Inspections and Flue Liners
Crown and mortar failure, full above roofline rebuilds, and liners in clay tile, metal, stainless or cast in place, priced after Mike looks at the actual joint.
Chapter 01
What a failing crown and open mortar joints actually let in
A chimney crown is the sloped concrete cap on top, and it is usually the first thing to go on an older chimney. Once it cracks, water gets into the brick and mortar underneath every time it rains, then freezes and expands every time the temperature drops, which around Pittsburgh can happen a dozen times between November and March.
Open mortar joints do the same job from the sides. Once the joints have washed out, water tracks straight into the flue liner and the wall cavity behind it, and by the time you can see daylight through a joint from inside the attic, the damage has usually been building for years. That is the failure pattern behind most of the chimney calls we get.
Finished brick chimney by M. Zokaites Masonry standing against open sky above the roofline
Repoint, rebuild above the roofline, or a full teardown
Mike looks at the actual joint before pricing anything, because the difference between the three options depends on how far the damage has gone, not on how the chimney looks from the ground. If the brick itself is sound and only the mortar has failed, repointing the open joints is usually enough.
If water has been getting in long enough that the brick is spalling or the crown is beyond a patch, the section above the roofline comes down and gets rebuilt as one piece, crown, cap and flashing all going back together rather than one at a time. A full teardown is rare and it is reserved for a chimney that has lost its structural integrity below the roofline too, not a call we make lightly.
Chapter 03
Matching brick and mortar color on a chimney that has weathered decades of winters
Color and brick matching on older structures is one of the things we are asked for the most, and a chimney is usually the hardest test of it in the house. Decades of soot, weather and sun bleaching change the brick face in ways a fresh brick from the yard will never match straight off the pallet.
The mortar is the other half of that match, since a repoint in the wrong shade of gray or the wrong joint profile stands out worse than the crack it replaced. Getting both right on a repair to an older structure is slower work than a new build, and it is the part of the job that separates a patch from a repair nobody notices was ever there.
Scaffold and weather windows on a Pittsburgh area roof
Anything above the roofline means scaffolding, and putting it up and taking it down safely is its own piece of the schedule before a single brick moves. On a two story or three story house that can be a full day on its own, and it is time built into the estimate rather than a surprise on the invoice.
Mortar needs a dry window and a temperature range to cure properly, and western Pennsylvania does not hand those out on request. A job that would take three days somewhere with a longer building season can stretch when a wet week or an early cold snap moves in, and we would rather tell you that up front than promise a date the weather is going to break.
Flue liners: clay tile, metal and stainless, or cast in place
Clay tile is the liner most older Pittsburgh area chimneys were built with, and it can often be repaired or reinforced rather than replaced outright if it has not cracked through. Metal and stainless liners go in when the appliance venting into the chimney has changed, since a furnace or water heater upgrade often needs a liner sized differently than the original tile.
Cast in place liners are poured to the exact shape of the flue itself, and they are usually the answer when the existing tile has deteriorated too far to reline with a sleeve. Which one is right depends on what is burning into that chimney and the condition of what is already there, not on which is easiest to sell.
What an annual inspection actually covers
An inspection is not a glance from the ground. It covers the crown, the cap, the flashing where the chimney meets the roof, the masonry and mortar joints from top to bottom, the flue liner, the damper and the firebox.
Once a year is the right interval for most houses, because it catches a cracked crown or a washed out joint while it is still a repoint instead of a rebuild. It is also the fastest way to find out whether the flue liner or the masonry around it is the actual problem, which are two different repairs with two different price tags.
Zokaites Masonry, Fully licensed and insured. PA contractor licence PA121063. Call (412) 386-0569.
Two jobs, in their own words
What people who called us for this actually said
“Zikaites crew did great work on my chimney which collapsed. Mike Z. kept in contact with me with the progress during the process. Well done guys.”
“They actually answered when calling for a quote for re-pointing our chimney, which wasn’t the case for others in the area.”