If you take good care of your masonry chimney — scheduling chimney inspections and chimney sweeping appointments every year, making sure all components that fight moisture intrusion are in place and in working order — that chimney should provide you with decade after decade of performance and beauty.
Over time, most masonry requires at least some repair – but large, expensive rebuilds and repairs can be avoided by having the work done properly the first time. Whether you are looking to have an outdoor fireplace built, or are in need of professional masonry repair work, New Buck Chimney Services can help!
But as strong and durable as masonry materials are, the need for masonry repairs is bound to come up at some point. When damage does occur, New Buck Chimney Services is here to help — our CSIA-certified technicians can handle any masonry needs you might have, from small repairs to completely rebuilding a firebox.
Why Does My Masonry Chimney Get Damaged?
When you consider the beating that your chimney takes, day in and day out, use after use, it seems pretty understandable that it would sustain some damage from time to time. Our job as chimney technicians is to help arm your chimney to minimize that damage, and to make proper, lasting repairs when any trouble does come up.
The source or sources of masonry chimney damage can differ. Your firebox has to withstand extreme heat every time you have a fire, and over time, the strain of that heat can cause mortar joints to weaken or crack. Up at the top of your flue, the chimney crown is subjected to cooking sun and pounding rain and lots of other natural abuses. That can take its toll too, creating small cracks in the masonry that worsen as moisture makes its way in. There are storms, small chimney fires — your chimney rarely gets to take it easy. Given all the different sources of damage, you can’t 100 percent prevent the need for repairs. But with regular maintenance (and some preventative effort, like waterproofing your chimney), we can hopefully minimize that need.
What Kinds of Masonry Repairs Should I Expect?
We can’t say for sure what you should expect, necessarily, but we can tell you some of the more common masonry repairs we perform at New Buck Chimney Services:
- Tuckpointing – When moisture and time wear away at mortar joints, leaving your chimney susceptible to leaks (and weakening it, too), New Buck Chimney Services can perform tuck pointing repairs on those joints. That entails the careful removal of the old mortar joints, prepping for repairs, and creating and smoothing new joints. It’s delicate work, and it needs to be done by experienced, well-trained technicians — particularly with older homes, since materials used in masonry work have changed through the years, and using the wrong materials for repairs can actually make your problem worse.
- Chimney Crown Repair – Since your crown is up at the top of your chimney, it bears the brunt of weather’s attacks, and even the best-made crowns can begin to develop cracks over time. If our technicians are out to inspect your system every year, we’ll usually catch this early, while the cracks are minimal and a crown sealant coating can bring it back to properly diverting water away from your flue. But if damage is more considerable — from major cracks to spalling masonry — New Buck Chimney Services can repair or rebuild your crown.
- Rebuilding Fireboxes – With the heat of your fires beating on the walls of your firebox use after use, brick and joint damage can occur. And when you consider the firebox’s important job of protecting your home from that high heat, it’s clear that cracks and damaged firebrick are serious issues. If your firebox is failing, we can bring it back to beauty and function by rebuilding it. When we’re finished, you’ll have a fireplace that you’re confident about using and proud to show off.
Those are just a few of the masonry repair jobs we can do — if you think there’s a problem with your masonry chimney that may make repairs necessary, give New Buck Chimney Services a call. We’d love to help!