Chimney Repair Glen Ridge NJ

Old Stacks, New Furnaces in Glen Ridge

The homes in the Glen Ridge Historic District were built when a real masonry chimney came standard with the house. Plenty of those stacks still stand, and a fair number now vent modern furnaces they were never sized to handle.

A high-efficiency furnace sends wetter exhaust up a Glen Ridge flue than it was built for, and that damages the liner and crown from inside. Caught early, most of these problems can be repaired.

A Glen Ridge Chimney Calendar

Freeze-thaw does most of the damage to a Glen Ridge chimney, starting with rain soaking into porous brick through the fall.

January turns that water to ice, and by March the brick faces are spalling off. That is why a chimney here looks worse in spring than it did in October.

Fall waterproofing is the best protection for a Glen Ridge chimney, so get the crown and the flashing looked at before Thanksgiving. This past February, Newark logged 26.0 inches of snow in one month (NOAA station data).

Getting Around the Borough

Bloomfield Avenue, which is County Route 506, and County Route 509 carry most of the through traffic, and the Montclair-Boonton Line stops at the Glen Ridge and Benson Street stations on the run toward Penn Station and Hoboken. Mountainside Hospital and the Glen Ridge Country Club are local landmarks.

The Mix of Chimneys in Glen Ridge

Chimneys in Glen Ridge vary with the age and style of the house. The pre-war stock, which is most of it, has tall solid-masonry stacks that usually fail at the crown and flashing.

A share of those Glen Ridge stacks originally vented coal or wood and now serve a furnace instead, so the liner and the inside of the flue matter as much as how the brick looks from the street. Then there are homes where a fireplace was sealed off a generation ago and the chimney still stands unchecked.

We work on all of it, and we start by identifying which kind you have, because the right fix depends on it.

Does a Glen Ridge chimney still need anything after the fireplace was sealed? Yes. A cracked crown on an unused stack lets water into the wall beneath it for years, so the flue gets capped and the crown sealed.

Can you line up the chimney work with a roof job in Glen Ridge? Yes, and the staging is already up and the flashing already open, so it is the best time to do it.

Both trades work on the joint that leaks, so doing them together saves a second setup.

Chimney Leaks in Glen Ridge Start at the Roofline

Most chimney leaks in Glen Ridge begin where the chimney passes through the roof.

When the flashing along that joint fails, water gets in behind it and the stain shows up on a bedroom ceiling next to the stack. People often blame the brick.

We do flashing in metal, with no tar, since tar lasts about a season and then cracks. Step flashing and counter flashing cut into the joints seals brick to a roof.

If the flashing is the trouble on your Glen Ridge chimney, you get a flashing and waterproofing fix. If it really is the masonry, the photos show it.

Crown, Cap, and Mortar on Century Homes

Glen Ridge was incorporated in 1895, and the Census says better than seven in ten houses here went up before 1939. Many are steep-roofed and multi-gabled, Victorian, Queen Anne or Edwardian, with tall original chimneys built to vent a coal stove.

On a Glen Ridge chimney the crown sheds rain off the top, the cap keeps weather and squirrels out of the flue, and the mortar joints hold the brick together. North Jersey freeze-thaw breaks the joints down every winter.

We repair all three, and the free inspection shows which ones need work.

When Repointing Is Just Stalling

On a Glen Ridge stack with mortar washed out top to bottom, brick faces popping off, or a visible lean, a rebuild is the right repair.

Most Glen Ridge chimneys are nowhere near that point, and the inspection separates those from the ones that need a rebuild.

Roofing and Chimney Work on One Glen Ridge Visit

Chimney flashing has to be woven into the shingles around it, so the roof and the masonry work meet at one joint.

We do both trades. Ask how the chimney and roof-junction work on your Glen Ridge house will be coordinated. If the roof has work coming anyway, ask for the combined inspection and we will quote it as one job.

How a Glen Ridge Chimney Fails, Top to Bottom

A Glen Ridge chimney fails from the top down, and the cap goes first because it is metal.

The crown is next, cracking under freeze-thaw and letting water into the stack. Then comes the flashing at the roofline, the most common source of what people call a chimney leak.

The masonry comes last. By the time joints have washed out and faces are spalling, water has been inside the structure for years. How far along your stack is decides whether it needs a quick fix or a bigger job.

Furnace Flues and Fireplace Flues in Glen Ridge

A lot of these old Glen Ridge chimneys no longer serve a fireplace at all and vent the furnace and the water heater instead. Newer units send wetter exhaust up a flue not sized for it, and that damages the liner, joints and crown from inside.

If the furnace was swapped in the last decade and nobody checked the chimney afterward, one look is worth it even with nothing visible from the ground.