Chimney Crown Repair & Rebuild
The crown is the slab on top of the chimney that sheds water off the masonry. On most older New Jersey houses it was never built properly in the first place.
on site
included
If it is urgent
Smoke coming back into the room, a burning smell after a fire, an animal in the flue, or water running down the chimney breast — stop using the fireplace and call us.
Mortar wash versus a real crown
A correct crown is cast concrete with reinforcement, a slope to shed water, an overhang past the face of the brick, and a drip edge so water falls clear instead of running down the chimney.
What most pre-1950 houses actually have is a mortar wash — a thin skim of mortar troweled over the top of the brickwork, flush with the face, no overhang. Mortar is not a waterproof material and a thin layer of it cracks as it moves. Once it cracks, water goes into the space between the flue liner and the brick where nobody can see it, and freeze-thaw does the rest.
When sealing is enough and when it is not
Hairline cracks in an otherwise sound crown can be sealed with a flexible crown coating, and that is a reasonable, inexpensive repair that buys real years. It is the right answer more often than people expect.
What cannot be sealed is a crown that has broken into pieces, one that has lost its bond with the brick, or one where water has already been getting in long enough to damage the top courses. At that point the crown is removed and recast — and if the brickwork underneath has gone, those courses get rebuilt at the same time, because casting a new crown onto failing masonry is wasted money.
Why we push caps at the same time
A crown protects the masonry around the flue. It does nothing about the flue opening itself. Recasting a crown while leaving the flue uncapped fixes half the problem and leaves the open pipe pointed at the sky. The two go together, and a cap is the cheaper of the two by a wide margin.
Common questions
Straight answers
How long should a crown last?
A properly cast crown with an overhang should last decades. A mortar wash typically starts cracking within fifteen to twenty years, which is why so many New Jersey chimneys built in the twenties and thirties need attention now.
Can I see the crown from the ground?
Rarely, and not well enough to judge it. Cracks that matter are often hairline, and the overhang - or lack of one - is not visible from below. It is one of the things the $49 inspection photographs for you.
What happens on the visit
- We protect your floor and hearth before anything else
- A camera goes in the flue, bottom to top — not a flashlight
- We check the firebox, damper, smoke shelf and the crown above the roofline
- We confirm which appliances vent into which flue
- You get a written report with photographs the same day
Get it looked at
Inspection $49 · Cleaning $99