Chimney Repair Near Me? Cedar Park Chimney & Fireplace Masonry
Chimney crowns, chimney cap repair, brick chimney repair and stone work above the roof, and fireplace masonry inside: fireboxes, mortar, cracks and veneer.
Describe Your ChimneyFirst: Is Yours a Masonry Chimney?
Plenty of Cedar Park houses built from the 1980s on have factory-built fireplaces: a metal firebox and pipe flue inside a framed chase that's faced with stone, brick or siding. They look like masonry from the street and they're repaired very differently. Two quick questions:
Masonry or factory-built?
Chimney Crown Repair & Replacement
The crown is the most common masonry chimney failure, and it's usually built wrong from the start: a thin mortar wash troweled flat on top of the brick. The building code calls for a concrete, metal or stone cap sloped to shed water, with a drip edge (IRC Chapter 10, R1003.9.1), and the industry standard behind it, ASTM C1283, details a slope of at least 10 degrees, an overhang with a drip, and a bond break around the flue liner (summary of ASTM C1283).
- Hairline crown cracks: cleaned and sealed with a crown repair coating
- Broken or flat mortar-wash crowns: removed and replaced with a formed, reinforced, sloped crown
- A flexible seal where the crown meets the flue tile, so the two can move separately
Fix Chimney Cap Damage or a Rusted Chase Cover
A cap keeps rain, birds and squirrels out of the flue. A loose cap can often be re-fastened, but missing or rusted caps are replaced with stainless units sized to the flue. On factory-built chimneys, a rusted chase cover drips into the chase and stains the stone below; we replace the cover and repair the masonry facing it damaged.
Fireplace Repair: Firebox, Mortar & Cracks
In a masonry fireplace, cracked firebrick and eroded joints are repaired with refractory mortar, not regular mortar, which breaks down under heat. Badly cracked fireboxes are relined with new firebrick. Cracks in the brick or stone face above the opening often come from heat cycling or a sagging lintel, and get repointed or rebuilt once the cause is fixed.
Fireplace Veneer: Stone, Stacked Stone or Stucco over Brick
Dated brick fireplaces can be refaced with limestone veneer, natural stacked stone, white stone or a smooth stucco finish. The brick stays as the substrate; noncombustible clearances around the opening and the hearth extension have to be kept. See stone veneer options.
Chimney Company Questions
Do you sweep or inspect chimney flues?
No. We're masons. Flue cleaning and camera inspections belong to a certified chimney sweep, and NFPA 211, the national chimney standard, calls for chimneys and fireplaces to be inspected every year. If a sweep's report calls for masonry work, that's where we come in.
What does chimney repair cost?
It ranges from a small crown patch to a rebuild above the roofline, so we don't quote blind. Height, roof pitch and access, how many courses of brick or stone are damaged, and whether the crown is cast in place or precast drive it. Every estimate is itemized.
Can you repair a metal firebox?
No. A cracked or warped metal firebox in a factory-built fireplace has to be repaired or replaced with parts listed for that unit, by a hearth dealer or sweep. We can redo the stone or brick around it.
Can stone veneer go over my brick fireplace?
Usually. Clean, sound brick takes thin natural stone or stacked stone with a bonding coat or lath, and the hearth and mantel clearances to the firebox opening have to stay code-compliant. Stucco over a brick fireplace is another option for a smooth modern look.
Should I replace the chimney cap or the crown?
They're different parts. The crown is the masonry or concrete slab on top of the chimney; the cap is the metal hood with screen over the flue. Cracked crowns let water into the whole chimney; missing caps let in rain and animals. We fix crowns and install caps.
Brick problems elsewhere on the house? See brick and masonry repair.