(214) 807-0414Request an assessmentChimneys
A chimney is the largest interruption in most residential roof planes and it collects the most complaints. It is also the one place where a leak has four plausible sources and only one of them is roofing. Re-flashing a chimney whose crown is cracked changes nothing except the invoice, which is why identification comes first here more than anywhere else on a roof.
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What this covers
The crown on top, the mortar joints, the brick itself, and the flashing where the stack meets the roof. Water entering through any of them arrives in the same place inside. Establishing which one is doing it is the assessment; everything after that is straightforward.
Step flashing carries water down the sides. Counter flashing covers its top edge and should be let into a cut mortar joint and sealed there. The substitute is metal fixed to the face of the brick and caulked along the top, which works exactly as long as the sealant does and is then a maintenance item forever.
On a slope, a wide chimney dams water and debris against its up-slope face. A cricket is a small framed saddle that splits the flow around both sides. Residential codes commonly require one above a stated chimney width, though adoption and amendments vary by city, so the applicable rule is the one the permitting jurisdiction has adopted.
What to know
The same rule as any roof-to-wall junction: one bent piece per shingle course, woven in as the courses go on, never a single continuous strip sealed to the brick. On a chimney it is harder to see the substitute has been used, because the counter flashing covers the evidence.
Repointing mortar, rebuilding a crown, resetting a cap, relining a flue and anything structural in the stack is masonry and chimney work. We document what we can see and we say plainly where the boundary sits. A roofer quoting to fix a spalling crown is quoting outside their trade.
Crown condition, joint condition, cap and spark arrestor, whether a cricket is present, the flashing type and whether the counter flashing is let in or surface-mounted, and any staining visible inside the firebox or the chase. That set answers the question of which of the four sources is in play, and it lets someone else check the reasoning.
Choose a starting point
A short, non-diagnostic guide for working out what kind of assessment conversation to prepare for.
Decision support
Four situations, and the sensible next move for each. It does not diagnose a roof, decide insurance coverage, or stand in for somebody looking at the property.
Questions
Sealant across the top of counter flashing is normal maintenance and has a service life measured in a few years, not a few decades. Where sealant is the only thing keeping water out of the junction, the junction is being maintained rather than built. That is a legitimate choice as long as it is a stated one.
It usually points at a junction rather than an opening. Driven rain reaches faces that vertical rain does not, and a chimney has four of them plus a crown. Note the wind direction and the room each time it happens; that is the single most useful thing an owner can supply.
It depends which of the four sources is at fault, which is the question the assessment answers. If the crown or the joints are the source, a mason does the work and a roofer standing on the answer is not much help. Where both are involved, the order matters — masonry first, then the flashing that ties into it.
Yes, and it is real construction rather than a flashing detail — a small framed saddle built behind the stack, then flashed and covered. It is most sensibly done during a replacement, when the roof is already open and the counter flashing is being addressed anyway. Whether one is required is a matter for the code the permitting jurisdiction has adopted, so that is the question to ask rather than assuming it either way.
Assessment request
Short, routing-only questions. Nothing here asks you to diagnose the roof yourself.