Our Work

Cutting out and resetting chimney bricks in Casselberry

How salts inside the brick push the face off

Water moving through masonry carries dissolved salts. When it evaporates at the surface, the salts show as a white bloom that is usually harmless. When the water dries just under the surface instead, the salts crystallize within the brick, and the National Park Service notes that this pressure can make the outer surface spall off.

That is why spalling and moisture go together. Replacing the damaged bricks on a chimney in Casselberry is only half the job, and the other half is reducing the water that feeds the salts, which we trace during the free inspection.

Matching the mortar color

Fresh mortar dries lighter or darker than it looks when wet, so matching an old joint takes care. The Brick Industry Association recommends comparing wet samples with the wetted existing mortar and dry samples with the dry mortar, using mineral oxide pigments where color is needed.

We mix and compare samples before the new bricks go in, and we tell you when an exact match is not possible. In Casselberry as anywhere, a joint that blends is part of what makes a replacement look like repair instead of patchwork.

The crown above the damaged courses

Spalling is often worst in the top few courses, right under the crown. Florida's building code wants every masonry chimney topped with a drip-edged cap of concrete, metal or stone, and that edge is what keeps runoff from soaking the top courses of brick.

A crown without a drip edge, or one that has cracked, sends water straight down the top courses. When we replace bricks near the top of a chimney in Casselberry, we check the crown too and tell you whether it needs sealing, repair or replacement. Our specialists also look at the bond break around the flue liner, which the same code section calls for.

Brick over a framed chimney

Some chimneys are a single layer of brick built around a framed structure, with an air space behind the brick. When a unit is removed from that kind of wall, debris can drop into the space and block drainage, which brick industry guidance warns against.

We check how the chimney on your Casselberry home is built before the first brick comes out. On a veneer chimney, openings are cleaned from the face, debris is caught before it falls, and our specialists note any sign that water has reached the framing behind.