There is a lot that can go wrong with a chimney system during the long winter. Extreme temperatures and high amounts of precipitation can lead to chimney damage. These damages affect your crown, flashing, flue, and masonry. If your masonry has been affected by winter damage, it’s important to have it repaired now before more damage occurs.

Winter and Your Masonrybroken and crumbling brick wall

Because of a fluctuation in temperatures all winter long, your masonry is subject to the freeze/thaw cycle. This is the process that occurs when water enters the masonry through cracks and gaps in the mortar. This can happen during a light rain, a storm, or as snow or ice melts. Once in the masonry, the water freezes and expands, breaking apart the masonry in small or large amounts. When a fire is lit in the fireplace, or the chimney is warmed by sunlight as the day progresses, the water will melt, and run further into the damaged masonry. The process repeats itself throughout the winter season, causing serious damage.

Masonry damage such as crumbling mortar and falling bricks can create serious gaps and spaces in the masonry. This allows it to take on the water in the wet spring, damaging the interior of the system and leading to water damage inside the home as well!

Tuckpointing to Correct Masonry Damage

Your masonry damage may cause large or small gaps that can allow water into your chimney and your home. It’s our goal to correct masonry damage now so that spring rains don’t adversely affect your masonry and require expensive repairs and rebuilds later.

Tuckpointing is the way a professional should repair your spalling masonry. This method corrects the problem while restoring the chimney to beauty and function. Our masons are experienced and trained in tuckpointing, in which the affected masonry is removed. The bricks are then replaced with new mortar of equal consistency, strength, and color. Our experts at Chesapeake Chimney are skilled and experienced working with all types of stone and bricks, designs, and damage. Make sure you choose the professionals who have the experience, the training, and the certifications to back up this important work.

We repair masonry quickly, check our work for flaws, and even waterproof the chimney exterior for good measure. This service protects the masonry from water penetration while allowing your chimney system to breathe–unlike many other water repellents on the market which traps moisture in the chimney. Choose the best, and make sure the job is done right.

Choose Chesapeake Chimney & Co. today. Call us at 410-535-0052 or request an appointment online.