My furnace vents out the side of the house now. Does the old chimney still matter?

It does. An abandoned masonry flue stops getting warm, so it stays wet, and a wet chimney in Minnesota comes apart from the inside. Depending on what else is venting into it, the right answer is either capping and sealing it properly or taking the top down. We'll tell you which.

Every house on my block looks the same. Do you do multiple homes in one trip?

Yes, and it's cheaper for everyone when we do. If your neighbor is looking at the same chimney you are, have them call while we're quoting yours.

Do I need a permit to have my chimney tuckpointed or the crown rebuilt?

Almost never. Minnesota Rule 1300.0120 exempts ordinary repairs from the permit process, and repointing joints or pouring a new crown is ordinary repair work. We aren't opening a wall, moving a beam, or altering a vent. Relining a flue is the one that changes the venting system, and that one does get a permit in most cities. We tell you which side of that line your job falls on before we start, in writing.

How fast can you get here from Little Falls?

We run the Highway 10 and Highway 65 corridors on purpose, so north metro work gets grouped into the same days rather than squeezed in one at a time. Call and we'll tell you the next day we're already going to be in your area. That's usually the fastest and cheapest way to get on the schedule.

Do you take on the masonry other chimney companies turn down?

That's most of what we do up here. Plenty of sweeps will clean and inspect all day and then sub out anything that needs a trowel above the roofline. We self-perform crown rebuilds, repointing, and top-half rebuilds, which means a sweep, a roofer or an inspector can hand us the masonry and keep their customer.

Crowns, repointing, and rebuilds are priced off what is actually up there, so we photograph the chimney and send a written number before anyone commits to anything. No trip charge to look at it.

Chimney Repair in Coon Rapids, MN

Coon Rapids is a postwar city. Roughly a quarter of its houses went up between 1940 and 1969, and only about one in eight was built after 2000. That's a city full of original masonry chimneys.

Call 320.414.0191 Request an Appointment

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

The classic Coon Rapids house is a rambler or a split-level from the 1960s or 1970s with a brick chimney serving a fireplace, and often the furnace flue running up the same stack. Those chimneys are now fifty to sixty-five years old on their original mortar, and they're all failing on roughly the same schedule.

The mortar goes first, then the brick

Above the roofline is where it starts, because that section is soaked from every side and gets no heat from the house. Joints erode, water gets in, it freezes, and the brick faces spall. Once you can see missing brick faces or daylight through a joint, a repoint won't save it. The top section has to come down and be rebuilt.

The good news for a city with this much housing of the same age: we're usually in the neighborhood anyway. Grouped scheduling is how we keep the price sane on a job that would otherwise carry an hour and a half of drive time.

The furnace flue in an old shared chimney

A lot of these houses were built with the furnace venting into a masonry flue alongside the fireplace. When the furnace got replaced with a high-efficiency unit that vents out a PVC pipe through the wall, that masonry flue was often abandoned in place and forgotten. Abandoned flues collect water, and water in a flue that no longer gets warm is how a chimney comes apart from the inside. If your furnace vents out the side of the house now, the old flue is worth a look.

Selling the house? A cracked crown and open joints show up on every buyer's inspection report and turn into a negotiation. Fixing it beforehand costs a fraction of what it costs at the closing table.

Ordinary repairs, no permit

Repointing, crown rebuilds, and rebuilding the section above the roof are ordinary repairs under Minnesota Rule 1300.0120. There is nothing to file and nothing to wait on.

What we do up here

Chimney Crown Rebuilds

The concrete cap on top is the part that fails first in Minnesota. We tear the cracked crown off and pour a new one with a real overhang and a drip edge so water leaves the chimney instead of running down inside the brick.

Tuckpointing & Repointing

Freeze-thaw pulls the mortar out of the joints a little more every winter. We grind the failed joints out and repoint with mortar matched to the brick, so the chimney stops drinking water.

Above-the-Roofline Rebuilds

When the brick above the roof is spalling, leaning, or has open joints all the way through, we take the chimney down to sound masonry and rebuild it. Plenty of chimney companies sub this out. We self-perform it.

Flashing, Chase Covers & Waterproofing

Rusted-through chase covers, failed storm collars, tar-smeared flashing. We replace the metal, correct the flashing, and seal the masonry with a vapor-permeable water repellent.

Straight answers

My furnace vents out the side of the house now. Does the old chimney still matter?: It does. An abandoned masonry flue stops getting warm, so it stays wet, and a wet chimney in Minnesota comes apart from the inside. Depending on what else is venting into it, the right answer is either capping and sealing it properly or taking the top down. We'll tell you which.
Every house on my block looks the same. Do you do multiple homes in one trip?: Yes, and it's cheaper for everyone when we do. If your neighbor is looking at the same chimney you are, have them call while we're quoting yours.
Do I need a permit to have my chimney tuckpointed or the crown rebuilt?: Almost never. Minnesota Rule 1300.0120 exempts ordinary repairs from the permit process, and repointing joints or pouring a new crown is ordinary repair work. We aren't opening a wall, moving a beam, or altering a vent. Relining a flue is the one that changes the venting system, and that one does get a permit in most cities. We tell you which side of that line your job falls on before we start, in writing.
How fast can you get here from Little Falls?: We run the Highway 10 and Highway 65 corridors on purpose, so north metro work gets grouped into the same days rather than squeezed in one at a time. Call and we'll tell you the next day we're already going to be in your area. That's usually the fastest and cheapest way to get on the schedule.
Do you take on the masonry other chimney companies turn down?: That's most of what we do up here. Plenty of sweeps will clean and inspect all day and then sub out anything that needs a trowel above the roofline. We self-perform crown rebuilds, repointing, and top-half rebuilds, which means a sweep, a roofer or an inspector can hand us the masonry and keep their customer.
What does it cost?: Crowns, repointing, and rebuilds are priced off what is actually up there, so we photograph the chimney and send a written number before anyone commits to anything. No trip charge to look at it.

Get a number on it

Call or text 320.414.0191, or send us the address and a photo of the chimney and we'll tell you what we're looking at.