-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Chimney cap replacement questions
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 06:44:05 GMT
From: "George E. Cawthon"
Organization: AT&T Worldnet
Newsgroups: alt.home.repair
References:


I'm with you. A screen on the flue is not a chimney cap, it
is exactly what you said. However, erosion of the chimney
cap in 5 years, is possible only if the chimney were
improperly built. It usually crack and let water into the
brick, and continual freezing and thawing breaks the
bricks. When that happens replacement is likely to be more
than $125. Just the cost of the replacement bricks for two
or three rows (depending on shape and size of the chimney)
could exceed $125.

Had one replaced lasty Friday for $125.00. Hail damage was enought to
warrant replacing. The chimney cap wasn't the killer. $12,000 for a
new roof was.

RB

However, who knows what the HVAC guy was talking about.
What he found certainly wasn't due to failure of the chimney
cap, it was due to stuff falling into the flue.
]
Who does this stuff? Chimney caps are placed, fixed,
repaired or whatever every by brick masons. Flue screens
are usually carried by people who handle stoves, stove pipe,
etc. Flue screens on brick chimenys are not common
everywhere. I've never seen one in my subdivision although
metal pipes usually have a screen.

I keep a flue screen on just to keep birds out during the summer months.

RB

RB wrote:

To me a chimney cap is a concrete and reinforcing wire mesh placed on
the top surface of a chimney. Among other things this serves to keep
water from getting between the bricks that the chimney is made of and
then freezing and damaging the chimney. Any mason should be able to
replace a chimney cap. $125 is a fair price for a cap above a single
story roof that doesn't entail difficult access.

RB

LenS wrote:
We live in a ranch style house with a gas furnace and forced air
heating/cooling. When we had our fall furnace inspection the HVAC
fellow pronouced our furnace in fine shape (not surprising since it's
only 5 years old) but said that he found some suspicious debris in the
chimney. Might have been the remains of a bird, he said, and also some
stuff that looked to him like toasted pine needles.

Anyway, he suggested that the chimney cap might be gone; eroded
perhaps, and recommended getting a new one. His company doesn't do
chimney caps and he had no suggestions for someone to do it.

We've only owned our house for a little over 5 years, and I'm a babe
in the woods at home owning and maintenance.

I looked at my chimney from the backyard but couldn't see anything.
Then I talked to a couple of my neighbors who told me that the cap was
a sort of screen-like cover over the top of the chimney and most of
the time wasn't even visible from the ground. They also said the HVAC
fellow might have been right, but the only way to find out would be to
have someone actually look at the chimney from the roof.

What kind of companies do chimney caps? Roofers?

Is this an expensive thing?

What would happen if I did nothing? Is there some long-term damage
possible?

Any suggestions, comments or opinions will be welcome.

Thanks,

-Len