4 Possible Reasons Your Chimney Is Leaking
1. Chimney Rain Cap
Most of the precipitation that hits an uncovered chimney will make its way down the chimney's inner walls. Most homeowners can see why a chimney cover makes sense. In addition to preventing rain from entering, it also prevents other elements, such as animals, waste, and birds, from entering. To prevent CO poisoning, which occurs when chimneys become clogged at the base, a chimney cap is essential. Sometimes water issues can be traced back to an exposed flue, however, this is typically only the case if the liner is made of metal.
2. Chimney Crown
The cement cap atop a chimney is known as the "chimney crown." If your chimney doesn't have a crown, you can cover it with a chimney pan. There needs to be something at the top to prevent water from falling in around the tiles once they have been encased in bricks to form a flue liner. As you can see, the chimney cap serves no other function than to prevent precipitation from entering the chimney. Chimney crown cracks can be traced all the way back to the day they were first installed when the building shifted, or to the day the crown shrank. A leaky crown allows water to easily seep through the holes in your cap.
Small cracks are common in crowns. Even small cracks need to be fixed because all big cracks started out as small ones. All winter long, water freezes and thaws in the cracks, forcing small cracks to get bigger and bigger.
But if the damage to the chimney crown is bad enough, the only way to fix it is to take out the masonry and put it back together again. It's best to coat your crown with Crown Coat now and save yourself a lot of trouble and money down the road. Storms can break or damage the chimney pan. Chimney Pan needs to be replaced once it has been damaged.
3. Chimney Bricks
Both mortar and bricks let water through, and often a lot of it. The problem here is the same as with the crown: water freezes and thaws all winter, causing damage that lets water into the house.
During the summer, when water gets into a brick or mortar joint, the water probably dries up after a while. The only exceptions are surfaces in the shade or on the side of the house where the sun never shines; those walls just stay wet. That water does try to get out by "falling," which means that its weight (or head pressure) pulls it toward the ground, where it pushes its way through the bricks, either inside or outside the house.
4. Chimney Flashing
The flashing keeps water from getting into the place where the brick structure comes through the roof. Flashing is usually made of aluminum that goes between two bricks and curves up to go on top of the roof shingles. Most of the time, you don't have to replace the flashing. Instead, you can fix it. However, significant damage could require a complete replacement.
These are the main reasons that your chimney is leaking, we always recommend you call a professional to inspect the area where you see a leak.
If you are looking for high-quality work on your home at a fair price then contact us today for your FREE estimate! We have been serving the North Georgia area for over 20 years and offer not only experience but reputable customer service!
Accurate Roofing Pros focuses on Residential roofing including roof installation, roof replacement, roof repair, new roofs for homes and Commercial buildings as well as Roof tune ups. Accurate Roofing Pro's goal is to provide customers with high-quality workmanship at competitive prices while delivering outstanding customer service.
