"smyk" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a chimney cap on top of the clay liner flue. I also have a
masonry built crown around the outer edge. It appears to be in good
shape.

Unless your furnace flue/water heater etc, use the same stack, a quick cheap
test- buy a cheap tarp, and cap the chimney for a month or so, and see if
the leak stops. (If the neighbors complain, explain that it is temporary.)
Since fireplace season is over, and the spring rains are due to start soon,
this should tell you if water is coming from the top.

The vinyl siding is, IMHO, a bad idea. Siding isn't watertight, there is no
good way to attach to brick w/o making problem worse, and it will make the
eventual fix more expensive. When you repointed the mortar, did you
perchance block any weep holes?

No way to tell w/o seeing it, but my bet is that leak is either from cap
area, or at the roof-chimney joint flashing, from ice damming. Flashing/caps
can look fine, but still have pinhole leaks and faulty joints that admit
driven rain, or water under ice seeping in on sunny winter days.

Probably not a huge problem- as long as chimney is square and straight, no
big cracks showing in mortar courses, and not pulling away from house, I
wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it.

aem sends....