Chimney Repair Westfield NJ

A Westfield Chimney Calendar

Rain gets into the brick through the fall and freezes in midwinter, and the damage it causes usually becomes visible at the spring thaw. The storms that come through in fall and winter also push rain sideways into the stack. In Westfield, get the crown and flashing sealed before the cold arrives.

Westfield's Chimney Mix

The first question on any Westfield chimney is what it does now. On the Victorian and early-1900s houses near the old downtown, it is usually a tall solid-brick stack built for fireplaces, with its usual weak points at the crown and the flashing.

Houses built later in Westfield more often have a shorter chimney venting the furnace, where the flue lining can matter more than the brick you see from the street. Stacks left unused after a heating change are a third group, and they tend to go years without anyone looking at them. Sorting out which one you have comes first, because the repair depends on it.

Is a Westfield chimney still a problem if someone sealed the fireplace before we bought? Yes, the outside of it still is, because rain still hits the brick and the crown.

A crack up there can keep the wall below damp without anyone noticing, and a cap and a sealed crown usually cover a stack that is out of service.

Should the chimney wait if we need roof work too in Westfield? Better to do both together. The staging only goes up once, and the roof work opens the flashing around the chimney anyway, which is the joint most likely to leak.

The Leak Is Usually the Flashing

In Westfield, the water very often gets in where the chimney passes through the roof, behind flashing that has failed, and shows up as a stain next to the stack. People often blame the brick. Repointing will not fix that kind of leak.

On a Westfield roof, a flashing leak gets a flashing and seal job in metal, stepped into the shingles. We do not tar that joint, since tar cracks within a winter or two. If it turns out the masonry is at fault, you see the photos before any work starts.

Step and Counter Flashing, Done in Metal

Flashing at a chimney has two parts. Step flashing is woven under each course of shingles up the sides, and counter flashing is set into a cut in the mortar joint and folded down over the steps.

Tar is a shortcut that shrinks away from the brick, so on a Westfield chimney we cut the joint and use metal.

Crown, Cap, and the Mortar Joints

On a Westfield chimney the crown is the concrete across the top of the stack, and the cap is the metal cover over the flue. Mortar joints erode over the years, and we repoint them by grinding out the soft mortar and packing in new mortar matched to the old.

Why Roofing Plus Chimney Work Beats Either Alone

We keep roofing and chimney work under one company because chimney leaks often cross both trades. One inspection covers both the roof side and the brick side of a Westfield chimney.

The Failure Order, From the Top Down

Most Westfield chimneys fail from the top down: cap, then crown, then the flashing at the roof, then the brick and mortar. Where yours is in that order decides between a small repair and a rebuild.

The Roads We Run

Route 28 runs through the middle of town and provides access to streets across Westfield. We come down from the Clifton side on the Garden State Parkway, taking Exit 135 or 137, and U.S. Route 22 runs in from the north.