Our chimney is made with red bricks on the outside, concrete blocks on the inside, and two terracotta flues.

There is mortar making a ramped or domed surface to shed the water.

The mortar is all cracked now.

I understand there is a composite material that can be formed into a domed surface. Instead of cracking, it becomes a solid piece.

Anybody know what its called?

I have seen a patent about a mold for making a composite chimney crown, but I haven’t ever seen one on the market.

There are some coating and sealing materials like CrownCoat and CrownGuard that do about the same thing. These are good if the crown is made correctly and is basically structurally sound, but just cracked.

For a bit more damaged surfaces there are coating materials called CrownSeal and Defy’s Crown Repair that covers the existing cracking crown material and provides a 1/8 inch thick flexible, weatherproof surface.

If the crown is crumbling and breaking up into pieces then it should be replaced with a new, cast in place cement crown.

Common mortar like used between bricks is too soft to handle the weather and should not be used to form a chimney crown.

A proper chimney crown, or Chimney wash, should be constructed of a portland cement based mixture and cast or formed with a 3 inch per foot slope and provides an overhang, or drip edge, projecting beyond all sides of the chimney by a minimum of two inches with a kerf in the bottom of the overhang and metal flashing between the crown and the bricks below it. This drip edge directs the runoff from the crown away from the sides of the chimney, helping prevent erosion of the brick and mortar in the chimney’s vertical surfaces. There should be a gap between the flues and the crown that is filled with flexible, cement stable silicone caulk.

I’ve researched on the internet and it says that gas inserts are clean burning. However, we’ve been told that our chimney needs cleaned and that we need all sorts of things replaced. I’m guessing that "The Chimney Man" is just trying to make some holiday money! Snow job or life saving necessity?

only build up you will ever get in a gas furnase set up is light carbon sooting and dust. manufacturers of any furnce set up will tell you to have your chimney or other ventilation system cleaned at least once every five years . dont be foolish get it done creosote is not the only danger in a chimney, also birds and squirrles love to nest around vents so they can also introduce flammable debries into your system. just some thing to think about

I have a multifuel stove and current burning well seasoned hard wood, smokless fuel and non smokeless house coal. we are having maybe about 5 fires a week and from late afternoon into the night. how often should i get the Chimney swept?

Every year, especially if you burn WOOD because wood leaves a tar deposit inside the flu and can pose a fire risk if it is allowed to build up.

I am looking to line my chimney and need to know how many metres of lining I need to buy.
I need to buy a Chimney liner to use with my wood burner, the width I have been told is 6" for my type of burner, but I have no idea of length required.

it must be at least 1 meter above the ridge of the roof if lineing your chimney best to use a builders vamiculite it will find its way into all the nocks and cranys and is a great insulation i am a english bricklayer for 20 years and now are made by the surveyors to use this stuff

I have a chimney finished with siding. The chimney is closed off where it meets the foundation. I would like to have the bottom portion of the Chimney removed and a large window put in. Is this possible without removing the entire chimney which would add a lot of costs? How is the chimney attached to the house?

The entire chimney would have to be removed. The chimney is attached with metal clips that are nailed to the house and lay in the mortar between the courses of brick every ten or twelve courses, up it’s length.

I just put my furnace on for the first time since last winter and I noticed lots of smoke coming out of my Chimney. The smoke is not black. Is this normal? Thanks!

was it truly smoke or h2o vapor???if it dissipated in a few seconds it was h2o vapor and normal and nothing to worry about,,if it did not dissipate quickly then it may be smoke and u should call a service tech

The chimney breast in our utility room was tiled by the previous owners of our bungalow. Upon removal of the tiles there are black spots which bleed through the paintwork. The Chimney has been removed from the roof and the hole tiled over. Any ideas what these black spots are and how we can remedy the problem? Thank you.

sounds to me like your talking Mold, not stains.You may want to tear out sections of the drywall/wood and replace it before it becomes a bigger issue.

Are you talking black specks, or are they differing in sizes with some as large as a dime (or larger?)

If they are black specks are they consistent or do there seem to be more lumped together in an area and then become sparser?

If they are black specks and NOT consistent, OR if some are larger than just specs, your talking mold, and you probably also have a leak where that was tiled over.

I have the steel insulated Chimney and last year I cleaned it out about 4 times during the burning season, late October to end of March. This year, I just did it on Jan 3rd or so and I don’t plan on doing it again until April 1st. I burn nice dry wood so I am not too concerned about creosote buildup. In fact when I did clean it out, it is always crispy black built up on the inner walls of the pipe. How often do you do yours?

We burn nothing but dry wood. We have had our wood burning stove about five years now. We clean it out only once a year, in spring.

We just moved into a historic two story home and the previous owners allowed English Ivy to overtake one chimney. The chimney isn’t even visible because the ivy is so thick. It’s growing inside our windows, and I’m sure it’s going down the chimney from the top. I need a QUICK, CHEAP solution. I’ve been pulling the ivy off where I can reach but I can’t reach any further up without a taller ladder or climbing on the roof. Anyhow, any advice would be much appreciated!!!

Gey a copy of the local Thrifty Nickle or Pennysaver (or whatever that advertisement newspaper is called that they give away in the lobby of the grocery store and at the laundrymat) and look for handyman.

Anyone who advertises in there will work cheap.

First, cut the ivy at the ground to kill it. It will eventually dry up and die on the chimney. DIG UP THE ROOTS!

They need to climb up there and strip the ivy all the way off. It’s pretty invasive, and can get into little chinks in the morter, so you may want a brick mason to look at the Chimney after the ivy’s gone.

It will also leave marks on the brick and on the paint where it was on the windows. Clean with a bleach solution.

A couple of days ago I noticed there was some bees in my house and more and more came so I took a look outside around my house and noticed there was a swarm of bees on the top of they Chimney opening outside. Would firing up the fire place to make smoke drive them away for good? or will it drive them away for a while? or will it not work at all?

Firing it up might take care of it.

I have one caution though. Is the chimney blocked by the bees yet? Could fill you home up with smoke.

Try the fire, but don’t start out with a full load of wood and kindling. Just light newspaper pages one at a time to be sure the flue is going to draft before you commit to a larger fire.

G’luck!