Chimney repair in Fridley, MN

Old brick, old mortar

A chimney on a house from the 50s or 60s has spent more than half a century getting soaked, frozen and thawed. The few feet above the roof take the worst of it. The crown cracks first, then water finds the joints, and every winter pushes a little more mortar out. By the time there's brick on the shingles or a stain on the ceiling, it's been going on for years.

Even if you never light a fire

Plenty of Fridley chimneys haven't seen a fire in years. They're still up on the roof taking the weather, and a lot of them still vent the furnace or the water heater. A cracked crown or an open joint lets water in whether you burn wood or not.

The clay tiles inside

A chimney from the 1950s or 60s is usually lined with square clay tiles, stacked one on top of the next. Sixty years of heat and freezing crack those tiles and open the joints between them, and you'll never see it from the ground. That's why we run a camera up every flue. A cracked tile doesn't keep heat or fumes where they belong, and it's a much bigger deal than a crack you can see on the outside.

If you rent it out

More than a third of the homes in Fridley are rentals. If you own one, the chimney is still yours to take care of, and a tenant who lights a fire in a flue nobody's looked at is a risk you don't need. We can meet a tenant there, do the inspection, and send the report and pictures straight to you.

The weather on the west side of the river

The nearest long-record NOAA station is in New Hope, about 8 miles southwest of Fridley. Over the last ten winters it averaged 82 freeze-thaw days a year and 23 nights at zero or below. The first freeze usually comes around October 14, and the last one around April 27.

Why that matters on a sixty-year-old chimney

Eighty-some freeze-thaw days a winter, for sixty winters, is a lot of cycles on the same mortar. The worst winter in that record had 96 and the easiest had 61, so even a mild year does its share. Old mortar was made softer than what gets used today, and after that many cycles the joints above the roof can be soft enough to dig out with a key. Once that happens, the brick takes the water and the faces start coming off.

Chimney inspection in Fridley

On a Fridley chimney we start on the roof: the crown, every joint above the roofline, the flashing, and whether the brick is still hard or starting to flake. Then the camera goes down every flue, because the clay tiles inside are where a chimney this age hides its worst news. If the furnace or water heater still vents into the chimney, that flue gets looked at too.

What brick chimneys like these usually need

Across our own records, 234 brick chimney repairs have a written scope, and the crown was on 189 of them. Rebuilding or repairing flaking brick above the roof was on 162, and the flue or a new liner was on 111. That's our work everywhere, not just Fridley. On a house built in the 50s or 60s, those are the three things we expect to talk about.

Chimney sweep in Fridley

If the fireplace hasn't been lit in years, get it inspected before the first fire. Old chimneys collect more than soot: loose mortar, pieces of tile, leaves, and whatever built a nest up there. We inspect first, and if a flue has more than an eighth of an inch of buildup, we sweep it the same visit. We don't sweep without looking, because the sweep can't tell you whether the tiles are cracked. The camera can.

The first fire after a long time

Open the damper and look up with a flashlight before you light anything. If you see daylight, good. If you see debris, a nest or pieces of tile, don't light it, call us. And if the first fire smokes back into the room, put it out and let us look. That's the chimney telling you it isn't ready.