Chronic Chimney Leaking
2019 : (Bailey’s Masonry): Performed a crown deterioration repair/seal ($3,000) and follow-up tuck pointing on all visible mortar cracks. Result: Leak continued.
2019 : (All American Chimney Service): Assessment only. Could not confirm the source. Proposed a multi-stage “trial and error” plan (crown rebuild, rows of brick replaced, flashing, and shoulder cap repours). Could easily be $10,000+ before the problem was actually solved! Result: Didn’t hire them due to their massive uncertainty of what the final cost would be as they moved through options.
2020 : (Bone Dry Roofing): Assessment only. Also unable to conclude the cause; proposed a similar multi-stage repair approach. Result: Didn’t hire them, again due to uncertainty of what the final cost would be as they moved through options.
Result: didn’t fix. This one really confuses me as it appears as if the water literally beaded up and rolled off.
2021 : (New Look Roofing): Full Roof Replacement. Instructed the team to spare no expense on chimney flashing and potential entry points. Result: Leak persisted.
2025 : (The Fire Place): Assessment only. Suggested a Masonry Absorption Test (MAT)
Result: but the project did not move forward. I reached out to follow-up and they dropped the ball twice.
Chimney Tests with Water Hose
All water tests, in all locations, resulted with water leaking into the chimney within 15 to 20 minutes. My conclusion is water is literally getting THROUGH the actual brick.
Photos showing results inside chimney (firebox and flu) can be seen in the photo gallery below this one. (Click Here)
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Islolated water spray to this area of the chimney. Test resulted to water leak inside.
(Date: 2019 – sadly, photo and test still relevant today.)
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Islolated water spray to this area of the chimney. Test resulted to water leak inside. (Date: 2019)
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Islolated water spray to this area of the chimney: I also tried to isolate the top and front areas of the chimney to pinpoint the leak. Very hard to isolate, not sure I really did, but this setup still leaked through. (Date: 2019)
Chimney Leaks - From Water Hose Test
Photos showing results inside chimney (firebox and flu) can be seen in the photo gallery below this one.
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Looking into firebox, back of chimney.
(Date: 2019 – sadly, photo and test still relevant today.)
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Looking into firebox. (Date: 2019)
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White paper laid down to show water dripping into firebox. (Date: 2019)
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Looking into firebox, right side of chimney.
(Date: 2019)
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Pointing to water dripping down onto top of woodburning stove.. (Date: 2019)
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Laying on back, taking photo looking up into chimeny flu. Not very helpful, but may give clues to fireplace construction. (Date: 2019)
Miscellaneous Photo
Photos show a lot of water is getting in!
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This photo shows an example of how much water gets in during a rain event.
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Again, Showing an example of how much water gets in during an hard day rain event. Plastic Bin is half full!
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This photo shows the wood burning stove insert
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This shows the entire inside fireplace area.
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This shows the entire room area with fireplace.