What’s Wrong With my Chimney?
If you take care of your chimney, it will work well for many years. But chimneys that aren’t built or maintained well often start to lean in one direction. This is usually caused by water damage to the chimney’s bricks or problems with the chimney’s foundation, which is usually a sign of bad building. If a professional doesn’t fix the tilt, it will keep getting worse until the chimney falls down. A chimney that falls can do a lot of damage to your home’s structure and even put people inside in danger. Read on to find out more about what causes a chimney to lean and how to fix this problem.
The chimney can tilt because of water.
Chimneys would often start to lean because of moisture. People who live in places where it rains or snows often do this. Keeping water out of the masonry of the chimney is one of the most important parts of chimney maintenance. If this maintenance isn’t done or isn’t done right, water can get into your chimney and cause damage. So make sure you schedule your Chimney Cleaning Durham to avoid this problem.
When water freezes, it gets bigger. When it melts, it gets smaller. If water has gotten into the bricks of your chimney, this back and forth movement will damage them. If you see that the bricks on the outside of your chimney are flaking off (this is called “spalling”), it means that water is destroying your chimney from the inside out. If you see spalling, you need to call a chimney repair company right away to keep the whole thing from falling down.
Flashing that has come loose is another sign that water is hurting your chimney. Flashing is a metal cover that goes around the chimney stack to keep water and debris from getting into the masonry. If you see that this metal cover is loose, it could be letting water into the bricks of your chimney. This is why you should have an occasional Chimney Cleaning Durhamand inspection.
Problems with the foundation can also cause a chimney to tilt.
The second most common reason why chimneys start to lean is that their foundations aren’t stable. As was already said, problems with a chimney’s foundation can be caused by poor maintenance or bad building.
If your chimney is leaning and you call a chimney repair company, they will look at the foundation to see if this is the problem. If your chimney is built into the side of your house, but there is a gap between its foundation and the house, this can cause tilting. Homeowners often use mortar to fill these spaces. But this is just a short-term solution. The mortar will quickly begin to erode, leaving the gap to grow larger. Some people will even use metal straps to keep a chimney from falling over. Again, this is just a short-term fix. If the chimney is leaning and the previous owners used metal straps or mortar to hold it in place, you need to have a professional fix it before the temporary fix fails and the chimney falls.
What to Do When Your Chimney Leans
If your chimney is leaning, it needs to be fixed right away. It’s not a good idea to try to fix your own chimney. If your chimney leans in a noticeable way, only a professional can fix it. Please remember that repairing a chimney can be very dangerous if you don’t have the right training, experience, and tools. Or you could just call Local Chimney Sweep Cleaning and let them take care of everything.