Hi all,
I have a masonry (red brick) chimney on the side of my cape cod.
Unfortunately the chimney has a leak that shows as a streak of water
running into the ashbox in the basement and eventually drips on the
basement floor. The situation seems to be slowly getting worse. I
tuckpointed some joints that appeared loose but it did not stop the
water. I checked the flashing and it looks OK too. I'm also pretty sure
the leak is above grade because there is a stovepipe hole above the
grade level and I see moisture there as well.

My idea right now is to give up on trying to pinpoint the exact source
of the leak and cover the whole chimney with vinyl siding (the house
has vinyl siding on it as well so I should be able to match it).

Is it a good idea to cover it with siding? Is it likely to solve my
problem? I really can't afford to rebuild the whole chimney. Is a sided
chimeny going to look so weird that no one will ever buy the house?

Looking for feedback. Thanks.