Chimney Repair Wallington NJ

Why Wallington Chimneys Take a Beating

The borough was incorporated back in 1895, and a lot of what stands today was built when every house got a real masonry chimney. Most of those stacks are well past their seventieth year now.

Plenty of Wallington's older chimneys no longer vent a fireplace at all. They carry the exhaust off a modern furnace they were never sized for, and the weather is hard on them.

Bergen County swings from January lows averaging about 26 degrees to July highs about 87, with roughly 3 to 4.5 inches of precipitation most months (Teterboro Airport, NOAA normals, 1991-2020). Nor'easters, snow that sits and refreezes, summer thunderstorms blowing in off the Passaic River.

Caught early, most problems on a Wallington stack can be repaired.

A Wallington Chimney Calendar

Freeze-thaw is the main cause of brick damage in Wallington. Water soaks into the brick during the fall rains, freezes hard in January, and flakes the faces off by March. That is why Wallington chimneys look suddenly worse every spring, and why fall is the time to seal the crown and joints.

Get the crown and the flashing looked at before winter.

The Mix of Chimneys Around Wallington

Wallington's stacks sort out by the age of the block. The oldest pre-war single-families and two-families carry tall solid-masonry chimneys. Crowns and flashing are their usual weak points.

The multi-family houses common on Wallington's compact lots often use the chimney only for the furnace, so the liner's condition matters more than how the brick looks from the street.

Scattered through the borough are the later prefab metal fireplaces in wood chases. They are not masonry at all, and they usually fail at the chase cap.

We start by naming which of the three you have, since the fix depends on it.

Does a Wallington chimney still need looking after if the last owner sealed up the fireplace? Yes. A capped flue is still exposed to weather on the outside.

A retired stack with a cracked crown lets water into the wall beneath it for years, so cap it properly and seal the crown.

Can you line up chimney work with a roof job in Wallington? Yes, and it is the best time to do it.

Staging is already up and the flashing is already open. Both trades meet at the joint that leaks, so one visit saves a second round of ladders on a crowded Wallington lawn.

The Stain Is Usually the Flashing

In Wallington, the majority of so-called chimney leaks begin where the chimney meets the roof.

Step flashing along that seam fails and water gets behind it. The stain shows up on the ceiling next to the stack, so people blame the brick and get a masonry quote while the leak goes on.

If the flashing is the cause, the fix is flashing and waterproofing. If the masonry really is failing, we show you photos of it.

Crown, Cap, and Joints: What Actually Fails

The crown sheds water off the top, the cap keeps weather and squirrels out of the flue, and the mortar joints hold the brick together.

Bergen County's freeze-thaw winters break the joints down every year.

We fix all three, and the free inspection shows which ones your chimney needs.

On Wallington's older pre-WWII brick the freeze-thaw damage is most severe, with faces flaking off the bricks. Masons call that spalling.

Once spalling starts, get it looked at early.

When Repointing Is Just Stalling

Some Wallington stacks are past saving, with mortar washed out of the joints, brick faces shedding, and a lean you can spot from the curb.

Most chimneys in Wallington are not that far gone. The inspection sorts out the few that are.

Same Trip as Your Roof Work

Chimney flashing has to be woven into the shingles around it. Handling roof and chimney on one visit builds that seam as one system, and you pay for one trip out.

If your roof already has work coming in Wallington, ask us to fold the chimney into the combined Wallington roofing inspection.

Chimneys Fail From the Top Down

On a Wallington chimney, the cap usually fails first, then the crown, then the flashing at the roofline, and the masonry itself comes last.

Flashing is the most common source of leaks that people take for chimney problems. Where your chimney sits in that order decides whether you need a quick repair or a rebuild, and that takes an inspection.

Furnace Flues Fail Differently Than Fireplace Flues

A good share of Wallington's old chimneys stopped serving fireplaces years ago. Now they vent furnaces and water heaters.

Newer high-efficiency units send wetter exhaust up flues that were not built for it, and that speeds up damage to the liner, joints and crown.

If your furnace got swapped in the last decade and nobody checked the chimney afterward, get one inspection. The damage may not show on the outside yet.

Roads We Come In On

New Jersey Route 21 runs the Passaic River edge and brings us straight toward the bridges into Wallington. County Route 507 runs through the borough itself, and Interstate 95 sits close by for the longer hauls.

The Gregory Avenue, Market Street, and Eighth Street bridges all cross the river, so there is more than one way in when traffic backs up.

Our driving-directions maps start in Garfield, Passaic and Wood-Ridge, three towns that touch Wallington, and each one routes to the base at 38 Speer Ave in Clifton.