What Chimney Repairs Do I Really Need? - Buyers Beware!

hey guys Dominic here with Capitol chimney um we're going to be taking you through a uh chimney fireplace chimney repair today this customer had a another company out to do a a sweeping inspection and um they felt a little uncomfortable with some of the things that they were the the company was telling them so we're going to go through and tell you guys exactly what's going on with this chimney and what needs to be done to fix it as I stated before we were called out for a second opinion when this company came out they did a sweeping inspection and uh brought up a few things to the customer and tried to pressure the customer into doing some some work on site now I'm going to caution you for everyone else out there if for whatever reason you feel uncomfortable with whatever this Chimney Sweep is telling you tell them to give you a written estimate and call and get a second opinion ideally you want to find someone that is a certified chimney professional if you're in the Chicagoland area feel free to call us Capital chimney 630-67065 535 all right as you can see here we got everything tarped and protected to keep the homeowners house nice and clean this particular fireplace a wood burning masonry fireplace actually has an issue going on inside the smoke chamber the smoke chamber is directly above the Firebox which is this area right here we're gonna be taking a look up and right where my flashlight is shining it doesn't show up too well in the photo but there is a sizable Gap there a few inches and that can allow exhaust gases to escape heat flame smoke Sparks Etc which obviously is a potential safety hazard so what we're going to be doing today is what's called a smoke chamber parging where we use a high temperature insulating refractory motor material and coating these walls nice and smooth and filling any open gaps to make sure that exhaust gases are traveling up through the flue system into the outside atmosphere all right we're going to come back when we're we're working on this thanks all right guys we're back right now we're taking a look at the roof up chimney structure part of our initial service was to do a level 2 14 point written safety inspection and part of that service is to come up on the roof and take a look at the outside chimney structure so I'm going to be showing you quite a few things that are going on in the outside chimney structure so you guys can have an idea what to look for at your own home or if you have another service company out you guys have an idea of what this other Service Company should be doing for your money all right so starting from the top um up here we have a rain and animal cover this cover is old it's an outdated design and it's rusted part of our service today is going to be replacing this cover with a top mounted damper system I'll show you later on in the video what that's all about all right moving down we got the crown the crown is the cement slab on top of the brickwork now this only applies to Brick masonry chimney some chimneys are different but this particular chimney has some damage going on at the top of the chimney Crown all right this expansion joint here is cracked now these cracks can allow moisture and water to penetrate into the chimney structure underneath it which will allow moisture and water to saturate into the brick structure now what we got here is a bit of brick damage okay now these bricks are cracked you can see these pieces are loose here so this chimney will need some some masonry work now it's the middle of winter where we're at in the Chicagoland area so this will have to wait till the spring or summer um but it's definitely something you want to take care of before it becomes a bigger problem right now it's just a few break located at the top of the chimney some issues with the mortar joints recessed and washed out but if you let this go any further you're going to be looking at significant masonry chimney damage which can get costly okay so we'll come back later in the video and I will show you what it looks like after we put up that new top mounted damper system so we got Dan here in the Firebox working on the smoke chamber repair and as you can see this is a difficult and dirty job um this particular smoke chamber because the design and architecture of it and how tall it was it's very difficult to reach um you know this chamber is you know four or five feet tall and we got to reach up through an opening that is typically about four to six inches wide which obviously no one's going to fit through so this particular chimney we had to remove the existing damper and framework I'm sure you guys are pretty familiar with what these dampers look like it's just a metal plate that you push open with the handle so that system had to be removed as well as part of the framework in order to have enough access to reach inside the chamber that's one of the reasons why we're putting that top mounted damper system at the top of the chimney so that's going to do a couple things for the customer excuse me number one it's going to ensure that the keep the rain and animals out of the chimney system keep the homes heat and air conditioning inside these damper systems are very efficient as well as take the place of that that rusted cover near the top of the chimney all right so we'll come back a little bit later all right we're back um the Project's going great we're getting towards the end uh starting to wrap up uh this is about a three to four hour project with two guys working on it so I wanted to show you guys the progress that we've made on the outside of the chimney uh go over a few things that we did for the customer as well as some things that you guys can look out for yourself all right so the first thing I want to show you is the energy top damper that's this mechanism right here uh this is a cap damper combination you can see it opening right there it has a pliable high temperature gasket so when it's close it seals air tight it operates with a stainless steel pull chain inside the fireplace so it's very easy to operate this product here has a lifetime warranty our company Capital chimney back set up with a full labor warranty as well um there are a couple other brands on the market I don't know if you can see it over there but the neighbor has a uh appears to be a different brand from this angle it doesn't show up so well pretty far away too but that damper doesn't seal very efficiently so it's kind of pointless to have that type or style of damper at the top of the chimney so basically my point is these aren't all created equal this damper right here is the highest quality damper system on the market when it's open it allows all exhaust gases to escape makes it pretty simple for the customer and in this case it was necessary because of the work we had to do in the chamber in an earlier clip I showed you guys the cracks at the top of the chimney and the expansion joint of the crown now obviously this is just a temporary pair I used some silicone to fill in those cracks hopefully that'll get us through the winter here and then come spring or summer we'll get in here and do a more permanent repair address the bricks and the the top of the chimney here um some tuck pointing as well now when this other chimney company was out here they were very high pressure trying to force the customer into doing almost two thousand dollars worth of work on site and one of the things that I uh thought was just crazy was they had quoted a flashing seal now the flashing is the metal around the chimney where it comes through the roof basically and where it meets The Brick there needs to be some caulking to prevent water from getting behind that flashing and causing a roofing leak now this previous company that was out here quoted the customer somewhere in the neighborhood of about three hundred dollars for this service now I did this service for my customer basically just removed the old caulk and put some new silicone caulk there um I did it at no charge I mean it's three or four dollars worth of material took me about five minutes so I basically just want to point out to you guys that if you have someone out to your home do your due diligence make sure that you guys are getting um competitive quotes make sure you're checking reviews online you want to be looking at Yelp reviews Angie's List or whatever might be prevalent in your area make sure the technicians that you have out are nationally certified certified chimney professionals we go through ongoing training get recertified to make sure that we provide a high level of service to our customers so it's really just very unfortunate that our customers had this experience here but we got them sorted out real nice I'm going to bring the guys back inside and show you the work that we did inside show you the finished product it came out great these customers now have a safe and functional fireplace address the major issues with the chimney we'll obviously have to come back spring or summer and address some more but they can at least use their fireplace now and you know they didn't get ripped off on buying a bunch of stuff that they didn't need all right guys I'll see you in a minute all right guys I wanted to show you how everything turned out here inside everything turned out great so I'm going to run through and explain how the damper system operates I'm also going to explain the chamber parking that we did and show you the finished product flashlight out okay so that damper system I showed you at the top of the chimney is controlled with this mechanism here this is called a see if I can get my light to there we go this is called a top mounted damper system and this is the handle to control it so this is all stainless steel construction so this is Lifetime warrantied Capital chimney back set up with a full labor warranty as well it's very simple to operate when you want to use the fireplace you release this handle off the bracket the damper raises up automatically and you're free to use the fireplace so right now the damper is in its closed position and you can tell that because the brass coupler is locked underneath the stainless bracket and the line is taut okay to operate the damper system grab it right here slide it over and it raises up automatically you're now free to use the fireplace all right when the fire is gone completely out you're going to want to shut the damper basically just reverse the operation pull it down until you hear it shut at the top Slide the Brack the brass coupler underneath the bracket and it's sealed air tight at the top of the chimney all right let's see if we can show you guys what's going on inside the smoke chamber okay so if you remember before the walls were not up to current code standards core belt walls which will create excessive creoset build up as well as a couple of decent sized gaps or openings where the chamber and flu system meet so we've used the product called chamber safe it's a UL listed high temperature refractory mortar and we parched or coated the the smoke chamber walls now we got a nice smooth transition from Firebox to flue system and no gaps or openings for anything to escape this product should last probably the life of the house with regular maintenance we recommend once yearly sweeps and inspections keep an eye on things make sure you're not developing a lot of creative buildup and that's about it all right for any of your chimney needs feel free to call us 630-670-6535

Channel: Capital Chimney Corp.

Views: 66,421

Keywords: chimney, chimney repair, second opinion, estimate, quote, fireplace, smoke chamber, chicago

Id: e6kGgjF7OgE

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 02 2017