Chimney Projects in North Jersey

These Montclair photos are about brick chimneys on gray shingle roofs. The lead photo at the top of this page shows a tall red brick stack with black flashing at its base, set among neighboring roofs, trees and a blue sky. The photos below show brick chimneys in several conditions and at several stages of the work, from dark, weathered brick to finished stacks with a crown and a cap.

One photo shows a chimney of dark, weathered brick with a tan roof and a yellow-sided wall beside it. Another catches the work in progress: the brick stack stands with its top open, a section of orange clay flue tile lies on the roof next to it, loose bricks are set out on the shingles, and a black cable and a blue tool trail across the roof.

The finished photos show where this kind of work ends up. Two show a red brick chimney with a flat crown, a black cap over the top and black flashing sealing the base. In the last, the crown is flat and a clay flue tile stands up through it, with a backyard below.

Each of those parts has a job. The flashing seals the joint where the brick meets the roof. The crown sheds water off the top of the masonry. The flue tile lines the flue, and the cap keeps rain, leaves and animals out of it. Dark or crumbling brick, a cracked crown or a missing cap are the things to look for on your own chimney, and a photo of what you see is enough to start with.

This second Morris Plains chase is clad in cream siding and sits above a rocky hillside, and most of these photos were taken with snow on the ground. The lead photo shows the result: a silver cover across the top of the chase, two silver flue pipes standing through it and a black cap on each, a larger mesh-sided cap on one pipe and a smaller cap on the other.

The before photo shows the chase with its older rusty-brown cover and the flue pipes standing uncapped. Parts for the new top lie on the roof beside it: a section of silver pipe, a black mesh cap, a drill and other tools. The close-up shows the finished top at arm's length: a silver cover with a metal trim along its front edge and two silver pipes with flat collars where they come through.

Flue pipes and caps do their own jobs. The pipe carries exhaust from whatever it serves up above the roof, and the cap on top keeps rain, leaves and animals out of it. A cap that fits its pipe and a collar sealed where the pipe passes through the cover are the details that matter most on this kind of work, and they are easy to see in these photos.

Snow shows why the top of a chase matters: it is the flat surface every storm lands on first. On a chase with a rusted or buckled cover, look from the ground, not from the roof, for streaks on the siding below the top, rust at the pipe collars or a cover that no longer lies flat. If you see any of this on your own house, send us your town and a photo and we will tell you what we would do.