Repointing Your Chimney

Repointing your chimney is important when needed because water usually gets in through cracked mortar. Pointing is intended to bond bricks together in a watertight way. So, when it fails to do that, re-pointing is necessary. The only sense in which “tuckpointing” is...

Protecting Yourself from Chimney Drafts

Chimney drafts can be even more annoying in spring than in winter because the smells they carry are usually worse. Variously described as “sour and sickly”, “dry and acrid”, “damp and smoky”, all kinds of smells become more noticeable in spring. Usually mediated by...

Anatomy of Your Chimney

Your chimney has a surprising number of parts; deciding what to do about that is more up to you than to us. We could list all its components, or we could draw a picture and lots of arrows, but in all likelihood, neither would be helpful. What we would greatly prefer...

Chimney Crowns and Their Use

Chimney crowns are at the top of chimneys, but it is easy for that to confuse homeowners when their tops look so different. In all likelihood, the difference is not a good thing but a time- and money-saving one, since often what is missing improves the chimney’s...