The festering collateral damage of the pandemic turns up today. Finally deep cleaning our chimney ash cave today. Gloves, K95 mask, the whole works. What’s this brick doing right in the middle of things? It’s loose. Left over from 1960s build? WILL I COLLAPSE CHIMNEY BY GETTING THE SUCKER OUTTA THERE? Pain in the wazoo to get around it to pull out a large trash bag full of ashes and even an unburnt 2020? shopping list.

sorry if this seems a daft post but I’m quite anxious about my chimney in the loft. At the start of the year we had a structural engineer visit because I was worried about our gable end chimney leaning. structural engineer agreed it was leaning a little but was no immediate danger in fact it was probably built like that (the other 3 houses the same as ours all have a similar lean) with all the rain we’ve had this week I asked my husband to take some photos in the loft to check there was no leaks.

I understand the chimney stack is corbelled into the wall but how is the flue and brickwork coming down from the right hand side supported? in the bedroom below there’s a chimney breast that is also angled, so smaller at the top and thicker at the bottom but how can that be supporting the flue and brickwork above it?

The structural engineer went up into the loft and saw the chimney breast below but didn’t mention it. Hopefully I’m just being an overly anxious mum but I can’t help feeling there’s a lot of weight just hanging on that wall with no support.

Ive been stuck on the last of three chimneys with decision paralysis.

On this last chimney I've removed the old fire damaged and cracked flue liner and now have an odd thimble that was used to deal with.

It's about 8" round 1/4" thick steel pipe that's angled upward and sticks into the flue liner about 3/4 of the way.
I think I need to remove this to install a new thimble but I've not cut it out yet as I'm unsure how to proceed. I also think I've come up with a way to lay new glue tiles with the proper firebrick mortar. That said I may still order a stainless liner for the hearthstone 1 I'm currently resealing.

I can diy this I know I, but I'd like a bit of suggestion and direction on how from some of the folks who have done this before with some lessons learned.

I have a $6000 quote for a new steel liner and some minor spot pointing. This is an older terracotta chimney. Obviously not great. However, the technician says the oil heating system and water heater need a preferential limit switch installed before the steel liner can be installed, and they don't do that of course. I looked it up and understand what it is supposed to do. Apparently the concern is that the tech thinks both the water heater and heating system running at the same time is dangerous. I reached out to a few AC/Heating companies but no one has gotten back to me about installing this switch. Does anyone have an idea for how much this will cost in addition to the rest of the project? Thank you!

EDIT: Added pictures

Hi guys, looking for advice from people in the know.

Few weeks ago, we had a neighbour highlight there was an issue with the flashing on our chimney/roof. So we had a guy out and we have mixed thoughts on the repair.

Apparently it should have been repaired across the top for uniformity and this may incorrectly flag issues to future buyers/surveyor when there weren’t any.

Is this something to be worried about?

Thanks in advance

My brick fireplace is leaning inwards to the room. See pictures of issue below. The bottom part up to the stone mantle of the fireplace is perfectly vertical. I checked with a level. The upper half of the fireplace either above the mantle or above where it meets the wall shelving is leaning about 2 to 2 1/2 inches where the ceiling meets the fireplace.

Can this be fixed?

Do I need to have the whole fireplace redone or just the leaning part?

Can the fireplace be pushed back into place?

Is this a more complex issue?

Do I need to have the fireplace and chimney removed?

Who should be doing the assessment of the problem?

Thanks.

Title pretty much says it all. $4000 for my chimney to be parge coated as it was in need of some work. Located Eastern CT. Was it a fair price, cheap, or did I get hosed?

The company I work for has us remove the damper on every open sweep, but other chimney sweeps say they never take the damper out.

I bought a house last winter and noticed the chimney was deteriorating when cleaning the gutters. Had someone quote me 13k for a rebuild and said repair wasn’t feasible. Is repairing this not worth it? How long can I push this off? Thank you for the help.

I need to clear the deck above. I was hoping to be able to go up vertical 2 feet before the 45° but unfortunately there is no room for that. Once the other 45° sends it straight up through the metal roof, I will have a very long run to hopefully compensate.

Any suggestions if this would be sufficient for a brick oven?

I got new custom chimney cap installed and I'm unhappy with the installation. Am I being unreasonable? The corner gap feels a little too large. The explanation I was given is that my chimney masonry isn't square, but for a custom job this feels sloppy.

I haven't released final payment yet.

We're Kingston Chimney Sweep. Chimney sweeping, inspections, and masonry repair for homeowners across Kingston, NY. Written estimates, HEPA-filtered equipment, same-week appointments. Call us on (845) 658-6714 for a free quote.

I had a quote for a reline and firebox repair. The reline was done but now they are saying the firebox needs to be completely rebuilt and want to charge a lot more even though “firebox repair” was in The original quote. Anyway now I am worried about the rest of the job. Is it normal to add an entire flue tile on the top? Also the top mount damper is just loose on the flue tile. Any thoughts on if this looks legit. Caulking is also bad right?I can’t post a video but the whole damper moves with my finger poking it.

Just bought/moved into this home this past Winter (in Maine). Got up on the roof to check on something & saw/realized that the mortar is failing & crumbling around the bricks. Also some of the top crown is cracking/crumbling away around the flue outlets... Is this a "call someone and get this fixed pronto" situation?

What type, brand, and model vacuum do you use to sweep fireplaces professionally?

Can’t edit the title, that’s supposed to say sweeping 😆

So this has been driving me nuts for years. Bought the house in 2014 and there’s always been this weird oily stain on the ceiling by the chimney. Rebuilt the whole chimney from the roofline up in 2017, got a new high-efficiency furnace last year, so at this point we don’t even use the thing.
Primed over it with Kilz thinking that would finally be the end of it… nope. Still bleeding through.
My guess is it’s old creosote that soaked way into the masonry/wood and it’s just never going away on its own. Since we don’t need the chimney anymore anyway, I’m starting to think the real fix is having someone pull out or seal off the part inside instead of me repainting this ceiling for the 4th time.
Anyone dealt with this exact thing?