Questions about your chimney? Call our receptionist, Kari, at 320.414.0191. She picks up weekdays, 9 to 5.
Normally we'd rather repair a chimney than rebuild it, because a repair is a smaller job and keeps the original brick. But some chimneys are already the worst they can get, settling and pulling away from the house, with brick loose enough to move by hand, and patching one of those is a Band-Aid that buys a season at most.
How we decide
We look at how far down the damage goes. If the brick is solid below the roofline and the trouble is above it, we take it down to where it's sound and rebuild from there. If the chimney is leaning, cracked through or pulling away from the house, the whole thing comes down and goes back up.
What a rebuild involves
It's going to be rebuilt in the same manner it was built, the only difference will be the top, where it gets a proper crown with a limestone edge or a poured overhang and a drip edge so the water sheds away from the brick. If the clay liner is broken, we take it out and put in an insulated stainless steel liner while the chimney is open.
There's a complete rebuild in before-and-after pictures on our projects page.
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.
Related: A complete chimney rebuild, before and after · Chimney repair in the north metro