Our Services
Getting chimney masonry right in Bertha
How we plan a masonry repair on your Bertha chimney, from the first crack to the final joint.
Taking out a damaged brick without harming the rest
When a brick has split or lost its face, it has to come out cleanly. Brick industry guidance suggests breaking the damaged unit to ease removal, then cutting the surrounding mortar away carefully so the bricks beside it stay sound and undisturbed.
The opening is cleared of dust, the surrounding brick is dampened so it does not pull water from the fresh mortar too quickly, and both the new unit and the edges of the opening are fully buttered before the brick is set. Full joints on every side keep the replaced brick from becoming the next place water gets in.
The crown and the brick beneath it
The concrete or stone cap on top of a masonry chimney, usually called the crown, protects the top course. The Florida Building Code, Residential, calls for that cap to be sloped to shed water, to have a drip edge, and to have a caulked bond break around any flue liner.
A crown without a drip edge lets water run straight down the brick faces, and a crown cast tight against the liner can crack as the two move differently with heat. When masonry damage starts at the top, the crown is part of the diagnosis, and any crown work shows on your estimate as its own priced item.
Rusting steel hidden in the masonry
Steel set into or supporting brick, such as a lintel over an opening or a support angle, grows as it rusts. The Brick Industry Association lists accumulated rust on lintels and shelf angles among the conditions it treats as structural, since the swelling steel pushes on the masonry around it.
That pressure can crack and lift the courses above, and patching the brick alone will not stop it. If we find rusting steel behind the damage, we explain what cleaning, treating or replacing it would involve before any brick goes back, and whether an engineer should weigh in first. You decide with the full picture in writing.
