Chimney Repair
The repair work, explained
Brick, stucco and metal chimneys across Bertha are repaired by our family-owned team, with upfront pricing and no hidden fees later.
Rust on the damper plate
A masonry fireplace has a metal damper above the opening, and the residential code requires it to be operable from the room. Water coming down an uncapped flue rusts the plate and its frame until it sticks open, sticks shut or no longer closes tight. When the chimney top has been letting rain in, the damper is one of the first parts we check below it.
Mention when you last used the damper, and our local team will look at it on the same Bertha visit.
Chimneys finished in stucco
A stucco finish covers the masonry, which also means it can hide what is happening underneath. Fine cracks at the top of a stuccoed chimney, or where it meets the roof, can admit rain behind the coat, and a patch over wet material soon fails again. We sound the finish for hollow areas and look for staining before choosing between a surface repair and opening the coat to reach the damage.
Each step of a stucco repair in Bertha appears on its own line of the written estimate.
After a chimney fire
If you hear a roaring sound in the flue or see flames at the top, get everyone out of the house before anything else, and phone 911 once you are outdoors. When the firefighters have gone, leave the fireplace unused. NFPA 211 expects a more thorough inspection after a chimney fire, or after anything else that has probably harmed the chimney, because heat can crack flue tile and loosen joints where nobody can see them.
Once it is safe, we inspect the liner, the smoke chamber and the masonry around the flue in Bertha, and list any repairs in writing.
A written record of what was done
At the end of the job, we hand you a written record listing what we repaired, the materials we used and anything we noticed that still needs watching. Masonry maintenance guidance from the brick industry recommends keeping inspection and repair records so later inspections can tell what changed and when. That record also helps when the house is sold, or when someone looks at the chimney again in a few years.
Every repair we complete in Bertha ends with that record in your hands.
