Our Services
What a lasting chase repair involves
Chase repairs quoted upfront by a local family business, with no hidden fees.
Chase, chase top and chimney cap
Three parts sit at the top of a chase chimney. The termination cap is the metal fitting on the end of the pipe. The chase top is the metal sheet across the top of the enclosure. The chase is the framed box below both of them.
Water can enter through any of the three, and replacing one does not repair the others. We check all three from the roof and price each on its own line, so you know which part the money is going to.
Flashing where the chase meets the roof
Florida's residential code puts flashing wherever a wall meets a roof or a roof is opened up, and along a sidewall it names two methods, step flashing or one continuous L-shaped piece. A chase is exactly that kind of intersection, and its base is where many chase leaks begin.
Flashing on every side of the chase at the roof line gets checked, including any sealant used in place of metal, and what has failed is repaired or replaced. A new chase wall above a failed flashing would soak up the same water again.
Caulk is not a chase repair
Sealant has a place in chase work, at screw heads, trim joints and the storm collar. Used as the whole repair, it hides problems. The Brick Industry Association's chimney guidance makes the same point, noting that caulking is often treated as a way to hide poor workmanship when it should be detailed with the same care as the rest of the structure.
We use sealant where the details call for it and repair the parts it was covering for. A bead of caulk over a rotted seam may look fine for a season while the wood behind it keeps getting worse.
Judging wet and rotted framing
Wood that looks sound can still be wet, and wood that is dry today may have been wet for years. When the chase is open, we check the framing and sheathing by probing for soft spots and, where we can, by reading moisture.
Wet but sound framing is allowed to dry before it is closed in. Soft, crumbling or split wood is replaced. You see which is which before we decide together how much comes out. A moisture reading tells us about the water in the wood and probing tells us about its strength, so we use both.
