Our Work
The details of a new chase cover in Wagner
Why the chimney maker requires a chase top
A factory-built fireplace is tested and listed as one complete system, so the Florida Building Code has it installed and topped out exactly as its maker's instructions describe. Those instructions treat the chase top as part of the installation. The Majestic SB60 and SB80 manual, for example, states that a chase installation must use a chase top and that it may be field built from noncombustible material.
A missing, torn or makeshift cover is therefore more than a cosmetic problem. Our specialists fit a replacement that follows the instructions for the system on your roof and explain the relevant details before work begins. If the old top was never installed to those instructions, we say so and show you where it departs from them.
Tracing water in a factory-built firebox
Water on the floor of a factory-built fireplace can come from the chase cover, the storm collar, the termination cap, the siding or the roof flashing at the base of the chase. A new cover fixes only the first of those. Our pros also read the pattern of the water inside the firebox, since a drip down the pipe and a stain on the back wall point to different sources.
We check the path from the top down, beginning with the cap and storm collar and finishing at the roofline. The estimate for your Wagner property names the source we found and any other defect we saw, and a new cover is proposed only when the cover is at fault.
Decorative shrouds and what the code allows
Some homeowners ask for a decorative shroud on top of the chase while the cover is being replaced. Under the Florida Building Code, a shroud can go on top of a factory-built chimney only if it is listed and labeled for that exact chimney system.
If a listed shroud exists for the pipe on your roof, we can discuss it and price it. If none exists, we explain why an unlisted shroud cannot go on, and fit the new cover with the correct cap instead. Our specialists will never add a shroud to make a chase look finished when it carries no listing for that pipe.
Pipe height above the new cover
Changing a chase cover must leave the chimney pipe at the height its instructions require. The Majestic manual has the last pipe section end between 2 inches above and 4 3/4 inches below the top of the chase, with the bottom of the cap no less than 3 feet above the roof and 2 feet higher than any roof surface within 10 feet.
We confirm those relationships before and after the swap. If an earlier repair left the pipe short or the cap too low, it is written up during the free inspection instead of being hidden under new metal.
