We tell all customers a visual inspection of your chimney should be on your to do list every year in early spring. A lot of the masonry deterioration takes place during the freeze thaw cycles of winter and especially in our tri state area.
One of the non visual signs that there is a problem is a strong soot odor coming from your fire place; Visual signs may be step cracks that follow the backup block behind your stucco or delaminating away from the back up. If your chimney is constructed of stone or brick you may see signs of separation in the mortar joints, as well as defaced or spalling brick. You may also see remnants of mortar or pieces of brick laying around your roof or at the base of the chimney, if so you should have it inspected right away. Chimney repair and maintenance is a must and should be carried out by professionals skilled in their trade, throughout the world brick and stone chimneys have been standing for over a hundred years, the reason for this is that skilled professionals carry out the necessary repairs when needed. They didn’t however last this long from having the local chimney sweep install a new masonry crown or re-point a few areas when he was done sweeping the chimney. To avoid complete reconstruction to your chimney, maintenance and repairs should be carried out as soon as a problem is discovered.