Questions about your chimney? Call our receptionist, Kari, at 320.414.0191. She picks up weekdays, 9 to 5.
A flue with nothing on top is an open pipe straight into your house. Rain goes straight down it every time it rains, and birds and squirrels treat it like a hollow tree, so some of the calls we get about a smell, a noise or a soggy firebox come down to a chimney with no cap.
What we find in an open flue
Nests, leaves and sometimes the animals themselves, which block the flue so the smoke can't get out. Water that runs down the inside rusts the damper, soaks the mortar in the smoke chamber and breaks down the clay liner from the inside.
What a proper cap does
A rain cap sits over the flue with a lid to shed the rain and a screen around it to keep animals out, while the smoke still gets out the sides. On a chimney with more than one flue, we can cap each flue or cover the whole crown. If an animal is already in there, we get it out before anything goes on top.
If any of this sounds like your chimney, call 320.414.0191. We'll come out, climb up, take pictures of what we find and show you before we quote anything.
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