Had a chimney out to clean my chimney yesterday, which hasn’t been done in many years as we don’t have many fires.

When he was done he showed me some pictures of the crown which has several significant cracks.

He quotes $150 to seal it up with appropriate product and $400 to remove the bad one and rebuild a new one. Said the seal would be good for 7 years and the replacement for 25ish. We are selling in 6 years, probably.

Those sound about right?

My house has a very steep pitch so there is zero chance I’ll be doing this as a DIY.

I think I paid around $300 this summer for the crown repair which is like a thick rubber paint and a cap on one flue and a seal on the other. My chimney had two flues, one for fireplace and one for furnace which was no longer needed.

That amount sounds good to me considering the work to get up there and do it.

Same…getting mine done in a few weeks.

Wouldn’t it be just normal mortar?

Mine is siding with some bad trim. Need to get a quote, because I am notgetting up there.

Pretty sure chimney crowns are always concrete, not mortar-

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
Pretty sure chimney crowns are always concrete, not mortar-

Then it could be fixed by cleaning the crack and putting in some hydraulic cement…..seems simple and less than $500 if the OP can DIY

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
Pretty sure chimney crowns are always concrete, not mortar-

Then it could be fixed by cleaning the crack and putting in some hydraulic cement…..seems simple and less than $500 if the OP can DIY

I don’t think that works. The crown goes through a lot of expansion and contraction up high, I think it’s got to be a specific concrete or the rubber coating.

How is he going to replace it? The correct way is to pour a slab in place. That will last and not leak. However, nobody does it the right way. Most just replace the mortar.

My understanding is that chimneys take a lot of abuse because they are constantly exposed to the elements.

We had water problems where the rain water was weeping in through the cracks that had formed between the mortar and the brick. I think it was $2,000 to replace the cap and router out the old brick mortar and replace it. They also replaced some cracked bricks and applied a sealant.

So it sounds like $150 to seal it up is a good price and that $400 to remove the existing one and build up a new one is also a good price, so it just depends on which I want to go.

Thanks all.