Stainless cover vs full chimney cap over masonry crown

[Bad LP]

My stainless cap was installed last week and this is what I came back to last Thursday. Nice guys, both retired firefighters from the same station back in MA and relocated to ME. Took great care to not damage my new roof.
Lifetime warranty on stainless and copper. I almost went with copper as it weathers to a dark bronze color but the bride was there when they came to measure and she spoke so for a change in life she got her wish.

 

[Kvic]

View attachment 282766
My stainless cap was installed last week and this is what I came back to last Thursday. Nice guys, both retired firefighters from the same station back in MA and relocated to ME. Took great care to not damage my new roof.
Lifetime warranty on stainless and copper. I almost went with copper as it weathers to a dark bronze color but the bride was there when they came to measure and she spoke so for a change in life she got her wish.

Looks good, flows well with the design.

 

[begreen]

View attachment 282766
My stainless cap was installed last week and this is what I came back to last Thursday. Nice guys, both retired firefighters from the same station back in MA and relocated to ME. Took great care to not damage my new roof.
Lifetime warranty on stainless and copper. I almost went with copper as it weathers to a dark bronze color but the bride was there when they came to measure and she spoke so for a change in life she got her wish.

From this angle it looks very nice. So does the house.

 

[Bad LP]

Thank you both. It’s really a fun house with some basic old school and contemporary lines that blend nicely for us. My wife is more on the older traditional side, I wanted a simple roof line because of high snow loads.

 

[Kvic]

Well this has gotten interesting. I was finally starting to make some headway, and working on removing cracked bricks, and the ones around kept breaking or coming loose, and the faces of 2 brick just popped off while drilling through the mortar to get them out. In some places, the mortar was damp and more fine than others.

Company came and installed the new liner last week, but it's still not connected to the stove yet. The angle it comes through the flue opening won't let it seat into the collar without forcing it. At least this time they agreed that an elbow would work better, so now waiting on that. At this rate we may be burning by Christmas.

 

[bholler]

Well this has gotten interesting. I was finally starting to make some headway, and working on removing cracked bricks, and the ones around kept breaking or coming loose, and the faces of 2 brick just popped off while drilling through the mortar to get them out. In some places, the mortar was damp and more fine than others.

Company came and installed the new liner last week, but it's still not connected to the stove yet. The angle it comes through the flue opening won't let it seat into the collar without forcing it. At least this time they agreed that an elbow would work better, so now waiting on that. At this rate we may be burning by Christmas.

View attachment 283424 View attachment 283425 View attachment 283426

Yeah it is always way worse than you think once you start digging into it. Do you have matching brick?

 

[Kvic]

Yeah it is always way worse than you think once you start digging into it. Do you have matching brick?

It's close but not exact. It also looks like they sprayed some type of sealant on the brick in the past, and it has a light sheen to it, so that doesn't help.

Since I've had to take so much down already, I was considering just going ahead and taking it all down to the 4th course and build it back straight up instead of having the 3rd course set in. I'm just not sure I want to risk losing more brick, or time.

 

[fire_man]

Its odd how some chimneys like yours are built by completely filling in the hollow spaces with cinder block and bricks, and others like mine are just a giant shell of bricks with nothing but air around the clay liners.

You can pour the crown on top of solid masonry, which is great. Mine needed steel bars to support cinder blocks which then got poured on top. I like your construction much better.

 

[Kvic]

Here's the new liner install. After the original install, the first thing I notices was the little jut out in the second picture. It's more prominent in real life. I zoomed in a little and saw similar on the fourth picture. I shined some light down the pipe and took the 5th picture, and zoomed in to take the last one. Not having any other knowledge of how it should look, is this normal?

 

[Kvic]

Weddings over, and I'm as drained as my bank account. But now time to start putting things back together once the rain stops here in few days.

What's the best order to replace and repoint? Replace the brick all the way around and then repoint, or do it in sections replacing brick and repointing those sections?

I realized the other day that there are 2 different size bricks in the strap I got. A few are almost the same size as the old brick the others are almost a 3/16" shorter. The color is different between the 2 as well. The ones that are close to same length match better and are what I based selection on. Are there any problems that will cause other than larger gaps between brick?

Some of the old brick was still salvageable, but as I was cleaning the old mortar off, many of those broke. Some have cracks, but are still intact, can I still use those, or better to toss them?

 

[armanidog]

Weddings over, and I'm as drained as my bank account. But now time to start putting things back together once the rain stops here in few days.

What's the best order to replace and repoint? Replace the brick all the way around and then repoint, or do it in sections replacing brick and repointing those sections?

I realized the other day that there are 2 different size bricks in the strap I got. A few are almost the same size as the old brick the others are almost a 3/16" shorter. The color is different between the 2 as well. The ones that are close to same length match better and are what I based selection on. Are there any problems that will cause other than larger gaps between brick?

Some of the old brick was still salvageable, but as I was cleaning the old mortar off, many of those broke. Some have cracks, but are still intact, can I still use those, or better to toss them?

View attachment 284279 View attachment 284280

When I had my chimney done the mason said cracked bricks are a way for spalling to happen. I had old bricks from 1906 that were made locally . He covered the outside of the chimneys with stucco after replacing the worst ones. It blends in with the silver roof and granite on the front porch.

 

[bholler]

Weddings over, and I'm as drained as my bank account. But now time to start putting things back together once the rain stops here in few days.

What's the best order to replace and repoint? Replace the brick all the way around and then repoint, or do it in sections replacing brick and repointing those sections?

I realized the other day that there are 2 different size bricks in the strap I got. A few are almost the same size as the old brick the others are almost a 3/16" shorter. The color is different between the 2 as well. The ones that are close to same length match better and are what I based selection on. Are there any problems that will cause other than larger gaps between brick?

Some of the old brick was still salvageable, but as I was cleaning the old mortar off, many of those broke. Some have cracks, but are still intact, can I still use those, or better to toss them?

View attachment 284279 View attachment 284280

Rebuild first then repoint. And yes sizing is usually the biggest issue. Do you have a good brick yard near you?

 

[Kvic]

When I had my chimney done the mason said cracked bricks are a way for spalling to happen. I had old bricks from 1906 that were made locally . He covered the outside of the chimneys with stucco after replacing the worst ones. It blends in with the silver roof and granite on the front porch.
View attachment 284295 View attachment 284299

Thanks for passing on the info from your mason, very helpful. House is all brick, so anything else would probably not look good, but agree it looks good with your house.

 

[Kvic]

Rebuild first then repoint. And yes sizing is usually the biggest issue. Do you have a good brick yard near you?

3 brick yards close by. The ones I have are the closest I could find by appearance, and were shown to me by a salesman after looking at a picture. Didn't have a brick on hand at the time, so couldn't compare measurements, but the color was close on the top layer.

Here's a picture of them side by side. They were butted up together on the left, but it doesn't look like it because I just found out the old bricks are wider front to back as well. It's also the ones I thought were a closer match that are shortest now that they are all together. Top brick is about 1/8" shorter, bottom is 1/4".

Any suggestions?

 

[bholler]

3 brick yards close by. The ones I have are the closest I could find by appearance, and were shown to me by a salesman after looking at a picture. Didn't have a brick on hand at the time, so couldn't compare measurements, but the color was close on the top layer.

Here's a picture of them side by side. They were butted up together on the left, but it doesn't look like it because I just found out the old bricks are wider front to back as well. It's also the ones I thought were a closer match that are shortest now that they are all together. Top brick is about 1/8" shorter, bottom is 1/4".

Any suggestions?

View attachment 284300

Yeah that much size difference is going to cause problems

 

[Kvic]

Yeah that much size difference is going to cause problems

Now I know why no one wanted to replace the cracked brick, just grind them to blend in to the perpendicular joints. I obviously didn't realize there were that many different sized brick.

If this were a job you were doing, what would you suggest to me the homeowner?

 

[bholler]

Now I know why no one wanted to replace the cracked brick, just grind them to blend in to the perpendicular joints. I obviously didn't realize there were that many different sized brick.

If this were a job you were doing, what would you suggest to me the homeowner?

I would find the right size brick. But we have a brick yard here that covers 150 acres

 

[Kvic]

I would find the right size brick. But we have a brick yard here that covers 150 acres

I can look around for some yards farther away. It's possible there might be something closer in size but not color close by, should I be as concerned about texture or color? Is it possible to stain the brick to match closer if the color is off?

 

[Kvic]

I would find the right size brick. But we have a brick yard here that covers 150 acres

Project manager is on his way to look at the liner, so I pulled the tarp up and put in one of the closer sized brick and this is what it looks like.

 

[bholler]

Project manager is on his way to look at the liner, so I pulled the tarp up and put in one of the closer sized brick and this is what it looks like.

View attachment 284301

Yeah that looks like chit lol. I would worry about size and color

 

[EbS-P]

It’s been the fad here to paint your brick house during covid. Not my thing but a solution and one my better half would really like to see.

 

[Kvic]

It’s been the fad here to paint your brick house during covid. Not my thing but a solution and one my better half would really like to see.

This has actually got me thinking about staining the brick, which if I do it on the chimney will mean the rest of the house will need it too, unless I try to stain to match.

 

[Kvic]

Did a dry run with the brick I bought, and the 8" would have worked had they all been the same size, but there were barely enough to finish a couple of courses and fill all the single holes on one side. Color doesn't match either.
Found that Glen-Gery has standard size brick listed on their website, but not stocked at the local supplier, so would have to order and most likely not be very cost effective, and way more than I would need. Salesman I spoke with today said to check their sister yard in Nashville as it is bigger and would be more likely to have older brick.

In the meantime, would I be able to use the stove if the chimney is wrapped like this, or would the flue tiles get too hot and burn/melt the tarp? 13x13 ceramic flue lined with 8" insulated light wall flex.

 

[bholler]

Did a dry run with the brick I bought, and the 8" would have worked had they all been the same size, but there were barely enough to finish a couple of courses and fill all the single holes on one side. Color doesn't match either.
Found that Glen-Gery has standard size brick listed on their website, but not stocked at the local supplier, so would have to order and most likely not be very cost effective, and way more than I would need. Salesman I spoke with today said to check their sister yard in Nashville as it is bigger and would be more likely to have older brick.

In the meantime, would I be able to use the stove if the chimney is wrapped like this, or would the flue tiles get too hot and burn/melt the tarp? 13x13 ceramic flue lined with 8" insulated light wall flex.

View attachment 284546

It should be ok

 

[armanidog]

Brick Matching 101 – Masonry Magazine

www.masonrymagazine.com

I thought this was an interesting article.