Chimney Flashing Repair
Flashing is the metal joint where your chimney passes through the roof, and it is where most chimney leaks actually start.
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.
What flashing is and why it fails
Where a chimney comes through a roof there is a gap, and flashing is the layered metal that closes it. A proper job is two parts: step flashing worked into the roof courses, and counter-flashing let into a groove cut in the mortar joint and sealed. Done correctly it lasts decades.
It fails when it was never done correctly in the first place — surface-caulked to the brick instead of let into the masonry — or when the sealant has simply aged out. Caulk is not flashing. A bead of sealant smeared where the brick meets the roof is a temporary patch that will fail again, and we see a great deal of it on New Jersey roofs.
How you know it is the flashing
Flashing leaks show up as staining on the ceiling around the chimney, and they track the weather closely — you see them during and just after rain, particularly wind-driven rain, and not otherwise. Water coming down the chimney breast itself is more often the crown or a missing cap.
Doing it properly
A real repair means removing the old material, cutting a fresh reglet into the mortar joint, setting new counter-flashing into it, and sealing it — not adding another layer of caulk on top of the last one. Where the roof is also at the end of its life, we will say so, because new flashing into an old roof is money spent twice.
Common questions
Straight answers
Is flashing a roofer's job or a chimney company's?
It sits between the two. We repair flashing as part of chimney work and we will tell you plainly if what you actually need is a roofer.
Can I just caulk it myself?
You can, and it will probably buy you a season. It is not a repair, and each layer of old sealant makes the eventual proper fix more work.
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