Chimney repair in Blaine, MN

The subdivisions: framed chases

Blaine went from about 39,000 people in 1990 to more than 70,000 by 2020, and most of that growth came as subdivisions. A lot of those chimneys aren't brick at all. They're a framed box with siding on it, a factory-built fireplace inside, a metal flue running up the middle, and a sheet metal cover on top. What goes on those is usually the part you can't see from the yard: the flue itself, the cap, the storm collar, and the flashing where the chase meets the roof. When water gets past any of them, it runs down inside the chase and shows up as a stain next to the fireplace.

The older side of town: real brick

West and south toward Northtown and along Central Avenue, the chimneys are brick and old enough to have lost their mortar. The part above the roof gets wet from every side and never gets any heat from the house, so the crown cracks, water gets into the joints, it freezes, and the brick faces pop off. We rebuild from solid brick up, repoint what's worth saving, and pour a crown with an overhang and a drip edge so the water runs off instead of in.

If you live in a townhome

A third of the homes in Blaine aren't detached houses. If yours shares walls, the chimney might belong to the association and not to you. Check your association papers before you book anything, and if it turns out the chimney is yours to take care of, we'll look at it the same as a house.

What a Blaine winter does to a chimney

The closest long-running NOAA weather station is at Andover, about 7 miles northwest of Blaine. Over the last eight full winters it averaged 92 freeze-thaw days a year, days where it gets above freezing in the afternoon and back below it that night, and 33 nights at zero or colder. The first freeze usually shows up around October 10 and the last one hangs on until the middle of May.

On brick, and on a chase

Every one of those days is a cycle. Water soaks into a cracked crown or an open joint in the afternoon, freezes that night, and pushes the crack a little wider. On a brick chimney that shows up as flaking brick faces and mortar falling out. On a framed chase the freeze works on the seams instead: the storm collar around the flue, the flashing, and any spot where the siding meets the cover. The good winters here still had 76 of those days, and the worst had 117.

Chimney inspection in Blaine

On a brick chimney we look at the crown, the joints above the roofline, the flashing and the clay tiles inside. On a factory-built one we look at the cap, the storm collar, the flashing, the chase cover and the metal flue from top to bottom with a camera. Every flue that runs up the chimney gets looked at, and you get the pictures by email so you can see what we saw.

What our inspections turn up

Since 2022 we've done 773 inspections, and 328 of them turned up something that needed a repair estimate. On the factory-built chimneys we've written repairs for, the liner or the flue was on 60 of 84, and water getting in was on 36. On brick, the crown was on 189 of 234. Those numbers are across all of our work, not just Blaine, but they tell you where to look first on whichever kind of chimney you've got.

Twenty years is when a chase starts to tell on itself

Blaine built 24% of its homes in the 2000s, so a lot of factory-built fireplaces here are around twenty years old. That's about when the sealant at the storm collar dries out, the screws on the cover loosen, and the flashing starts to lift at the corners. None of it shows from the driveway. From the roof it's plain as day, and it's a small fix if you catch it before the framing inside the chase gets wet.

Chimney sweep in Blaine

We don't sweep a chimney without inspecting it, so the sweep comes with the inspection. If a flue has more than an eighth of an inch of buildup, it gets swept that same visit. On the factory-built fireplaces all over Blaine, the buildup collects on the inside of the metal flue, and creosote or glaze was on 25 of the 84 factory-built chimneys we've written repairs for. If you burn in yours every weekend all winter, once a year before the first fire is the right rhythm.

Glass doors and a smoky smell

If the glass doors on a factory-built fireplace keep going black, or the room smells like smoke the day after a fire, the flue is telling you something. Usually it's buildup, sometimes it's a cap that's plugged, and once in a while it's a flue section that's come apart. The inspection sorts out which.