Mayday... need some advice. I've been experiencing some kind of
chimney leak and the roofers can't seem to fix the darn thing. I live in
a roughly 19 year old condo in PA. These are two story buildings, one
condo per story. I'm on the second floor and above me is the attic. The
chimney is a box running up the side of the building and it has two exits...
one for my fireplace and one for the downstairs fireplace. Recently we
had our roofs replaced and at the same time they painted or replaced
the chimney caps. Ever since then I've had some kind of leak when it
rains, and the story is the same everytime...

During the initial hour or so of rain, even if it is a very hard rain, there is
no sign or sound of a leak. Then I start to hear dripping sounds coming
from within the chimney. The dripping sounds continue for an hour or so
beyond when it stops raining. Water seems to be dripping onto metal
in two general areas... 1) in the chimney at the level of my ceiling, and
2) onto metal in the vicinity of my fireplace. The only signs of water are
in two places... a) on top of the firebox or whatever it is called (I can just
stick my fingers up in there and feel that the top is wet), and b) under the
fireplace (I can peer into a gap at the bottom of the fireplace and see
some water seeping in). Initially alot of water came in (gallons), but after
several repair attempts my guess is that we're down to a few cups or so.
It is hard to tell because I think now virtually all of the water is falling
somewhere behind or to the side of the firebox and only a tiny bit seeps
in underneath. FWIW, some small amount of water has appeared in the
same places around the downstairs unit's fireplace also.

Does anyone know anything about fireplace/chimney construction and
can hazard a guess as to what might be going on? My uneducated
guess is that water is dripping onto a metal firestop near the vicinity of
my ceiling, then from there dripping onto metal around the firebox. The
thing that kinda confuses me is that there is a good delay before it starts
dripping and then it continues to drip long after it has stopped raining.
Can water pool in the cap? Once water is in the chimney, could it then
get down to both fireplaces or would the fact that both are affected
suggest there are similar problems with both caps? Any advice
appreciated. Before I ping the associate again I wouldn't mind having
some sense of what is going on. Thanks in advance.