Chimney Services
Getting a rebuilt chimney right in Fern Park
How we plan a rebuild on your Fern Park chimney, from the first sound course to the new cap.
A cricket on the high side of the roof
Water running down a roof piles up against the upper side of a chimney. A cricket, a small peaked diversion built behind the chimney, splits that flow and sends it around the sides instead of into the flashing.
The Florida Building Code, Residential, requires one where the chimney's dimension parallel to the ridge is more than 30 inches and the chimney does not meet the ridge. When a rebuild changes the chimney's footprint, or the roof around it is being redone, we check whether a cricket is needed and coordinate it with the flashing and your roofer.
A cricket is usually framed and covered by the roofer and then flashed to the chimney, so it goes into the schedule at the point where the new masonry is ready for its counterflashing.
Mortar for a rebuilt chimney
New courses are laid in mortar chosen for a chimney's exposure. For chimneys above grade, the Brick Industry Association's mortar guide recommends Type N, with Type S as the alternate, and it advises using the lowest strength that still meets the job's requirements.
On a partial rebuild the mix also has to sit comfortably beside the older masonry that stays, since a much harder mortar next to softer old brick concentrates stress in the old work. We name the mortar on your estimate and explain why it suits both the new brick and the chimney below it.
The new joints are tooled once the mortar reaches the right firmness, which compresses the surface and helps the fresh work shed rain from the first storm onward.
Permits and inspections for a rebuild
A chimney rebuild is structural work, and it may need a building permit and inspections depending on the scope and where you live. The local building department decides what applies to your project.
We tell you what we expect the job to require when we write the estimate, and we build the time for any permit and inspection steps into the schedule. If the rules for your address call for drawings or an engineer's letter, we explain that before work is booked, so the start date you plan around is a real one.
Where a permit applies, we plan the stages of the work so any required inspection can happen at the right point without leaving the chimney open longer than necessary.
