How do I know whether it repoints or has to be rebuilt?

Look at the brick, not the mortar. If the joints are eroded but the brick faces are intact and flat, it repoints. If faces are flaking off, courses have shifted, or you can see daylight through a joint, that section has to come down and go back up. We photograph both so you can see which one you have.

Do I need a permit for this?

For the masonry, no. Minnesota Rule 1300.0120 exempts ordinary repairs, and repointing, crown work and rebuilding above the roofline are ordinary repairs. Relining a flue is the job that changes the venting system and typically does require one.

Why won't my chimney sweep do this?

Because it's a different trade. Sweeping and inspecting is brush and camera work. Rebuilding the top four feet of a chimney is staging, demolition, and laying brick at height. Plenty of chimney companies sub it out, which is why the price comes back high and the schedule comes back long. We self-perform it.

What time of year can this be done?

Masonry needs temperature to cure properly, so rebuilds and poured crowns are warm-season work. We can stabilize and stop water intrusion any time of year, and we'll tell you honestly whether yours can wait for spring or should not.

Above-the-Roofline Chimney Masonry

Crowns, repointing, and rebuilding the top of the stack. Plenty of chimney companies subcontract this. We built the company around it.

Call 320.414.0191 Request an Appointment

Free written estimate on any chimney we can get to. We send photos of what we found on your roof, not a verbal guess.

The section of chimney that stands above your roof is the only part of your house that gets weather on all six sides and heat from none of them. It's why chimneys fail top-down, every time, and why the top four feet are usually shot while everything inside the attic is perfectly sound.

The failure sequence, in order

The crown cracks. A thin mortar wash with no overhang, which is what most chimneys got, splits within a decade or two.
Water enters the joints. Through the crack, and down the sides where there's no drip edge to throw water clear.
The mortar erodes. Freeze-thaw expands every drop of trapped water about nine percent, a few hundred times a winter.
The brick spalls. Once water is in the brick itself, the faces pop off in sheets and the structure starts losing courses.
The stack leans. At this point it's a safety problem, not a maintenance one.

Every step in that list is several times more expensive than the one before it. Almost all of our work is catching it at step one or two.

What we actually do

Poured crowns, built the way they should have been

We remove the failed crown, form and pour a reinforced concrete crown that overhangs the brick, and cut a drip edge into the underside of that overhang so water leaves the chimney instead of running back down the face of it. A bond break at the flue lets the flue expand without cracking the crown. That's the difference between a crown that lasts and a crown you replace again.

Repointing that matches the masonry

We grind the failed joints out to depth, not a skim coat over soft mortar, and repoint with mortar matched to the brick in both color and compressive strength. That second part is what most people get wrong. Modern high-strength mortar on old soft brick makes the brick the sacrificial element instead of the joint, and it will destroy a century-old chimney within a few years.

Rebuilding the top section

When the brick is past saving we take the chimney down to sound masonry and rebuild it, reusing original brick where it's sound enough, and finishing with a proper crown and cap. Plenty of chimney companies sub this out. We do not.

Flashing, chase covers and waterproofing

Step and counter flashing in metal, not tar. Stainless chase covers with a cross break and a drip edge, not flat galvanized. And where it's worth doing, a vapor-permeable masonry water repellent, never a film-forming sealer, which traps moisture inside brick and does more harm in a Minnesota winter than doing nothing.

You get photos, not adjectives. We shoot all four faces of the chimney and the crown from the roof and send them with the written estimate. You should be able to see the thing you're paying to fix.

Where we do it

Across the north metro and throughout Central Minnesota.

Straight answers

How do I know whether it repoints or has to be rebuilt?: Look at the brick, not the mortar. If the joints are eroded but the brick faces are intact and flat, it repoints. If faces are flaking off, courses have shifted, or you can see daylight through a joint, that section has to come down and go back up. We photograph both so you can see which one you have.
Do I need a permit for this?: For the masonry, no. Minnesota Rule 1300.0120 exempts ordinary repairs, and repointing, crown work and rebuilding above the roofline are ordinary repairs. Relining a flue is the job that changes the venting system and typically does require one.
Why won't my chimney sweep do this?: Because it's a different trade. Sweeping and inspecting is brush and camera work. Rebuilding the top four feet of a chimney is staging, demolition, and laying brick at height. Plenty of chimney companies sub it out, which is why the price comes back high and the schedule comes back long. We self-perform it.
What time of year can this be done?: Masonry needs temperature to cure properly, so rebuilds and poured crowns are warm-season work. We can stabilize and stop water intrusion any time of year, and we'll tell you honestly whether yours can wait for spring or should not.

Send us a photo

Zoom your phone camera at the top of the chimney and text it to 320.414.0191. We can usually tell you from that whether you're looking at a repoint or a rebuild.