My husband and I are buying a house. During the home inspection, we found water penetration in the bottom of the fireplace. The inspector suggested we get a chimney expert in there. We told the sellers and they hired someone to look at it.

The chimney expert said that all the moisture was due to the cinderblock. He said the caps should be replaced eventually but they're ok for now and the damper is ok too. There was extensive patching and tar covering the whole top of the crown of the chimney. He didn;t seem to be concerned with that at all. My husband asked about waterproofing and he said yes you can do that and see what happens... but he didn;t suggest it originally, not until my husband mentioned it.

Anyone have any comments/suggestions for us. We are just worried that we will move in and it will turn out in 6 months its a nightmare.

All masonry chimneys can be porous and allow water in. What should have been done and probably wasn't done was to completely flash the chimney with metal flashing (copper or stainless steel, preferably). This flashing is concealed within the chimney and starts right at the flue opening and continues all the way to the roof, so that any water penetrating the outer wythe of masonry is directed down and out onto the roof.

A possible stopgap measure, if you don't want to reconstruct the chimney to include the missing flashing, is to paint the chimney with a solvent-type acrylic coating. This is a coating that goes on very heavy (about 30 square feet per gallon), but when it's dry, it will repel water from even a fire hose, while still allowing moisture to pass out from within the chimney. One such product is "Modac", manufactured by American Coatings Corp, in Pennsylvania. There are other similar products.

Check out www.myleakyhome.com for answers. The water maybe coming right thru the paint as the previous poster stated. We stop this stuff for a living and are suprised every day at how many homes leak and go un-noticed by the owner.

I hope I have posted this is the right area. My Mom had a new shingle roof installed approx 5 years ago at her Cape Cod home. Now there is a leak on the roof around the fireplace. Apparently the flashing was not replaced around the fireplace when they installed the roof. Isn't that part of the reroof process and part of the code? They want her to pay to have the flashing installed. I think they should, because I think it was part of the reroof.
Thanks for your help.
Pam

If the flashing was in good shape when the re-roofing was done, there should have been no need to replace it. If the flashing was of the proper material (copper, aluminum, stainless steel) then it should not fail for centuries.

I suspect that the problem is not with the flashing, or if it is, perhaps it is caused by dissimilar metals being placed in close contact with each other, in which case galvanic action will cause a failure in the flashing.

When did the leak appear? Immediately after the roof was installed? Or five years later, as your post suggests? If it is five years later, then something has changed from the way it was when the roof was first installed. The question is, what has changed? I would have someone other than the roofer inspect the conditions to try to determine the exact cause of the leak. Then it will be clear whose problem it is.

(edited because I can't type my way out of a paper bag)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Richard Hetzel,

Thanks Richard for your help, I have forwarded your response to my Mom at the Cape.

I noticed that you have over 400 posts to this site and I suspect most are helping other people out. I thank you for that, it's nice to know that if you have a question there's someone that will help you.

Pam

Who could resist helping someone named "Sparkle"? And yes, about 395 posts are attempting to help people...the other five are being a pain in the rump. )

Hi roorezzi,
As Richard referenced, the masonry material used to crown a chimney is subject to damage from moisture. The porous nature of concrete draws water into the material, and that water often freezes and expands, forming cracks. The cracks allow more water penetration until you have water leaking into your home. A good solution to constant re-crowning is to use a copper or stainless steel cover in place of the chimney crown. Here is an example: Masonry Crown Cover. Try to stay away from galvanized steel, as the heat from your chimney will wear away the galvanized coating and the metal will rust. Have a great day! -Tom

quote:

Originally posted by Wallcoat Joe:
Check out www.myleakyhome.com for answers. The water maybe coming right thru the paint as the previous poster stated. We stop this stuff for a living and are suprised every day at how many homes leak and go un-noticed by the owner.

I had my home painted by Wallcoat in 2005 and I'm seeing signs of the water coming right through the paint again. I was given a cell phone number to call, but it goes straight to voicemail with no message. So far, nobody has returned my calls. I'm wondering whether anyone has had any experience with them and whether or not they honor their 20 year warranty.

http://www.orlando.bbb.org/newsearch2.asp?ComID=07330038000348


unsatisafctory record, unanswered complaints,Bureau wrote to company requesting substantiation of several claims,company declined the request to substantiate claims

KayCee if your home is EIFS or hard coat stucco your issues are not with the surface but the flashings. What folks do not understand. Is the flashing trade has died. The installation contractors do not understand the proper and time consuming methods of flashing a home are critical. The builders do not care as it hurts there bottom line. Everyone looks at the final picture not the necessary steps required to properly build a moisture resistant home. This includes chimneys, roofs, walls, and basements. This has set up a cottage industry such as this Wall coat system to emerge. Water proofing paint for basements Even with the complaints such as shown by LWPR the amount of jobs that they completed outweigh the several complaints he has had.
He will simply go away and open under another name and continue on. I as an EIFS inspector, moisture inspector, Certified Mold inspector and a host of other certs. continue to see these incorrect practices every day. No matter how hard we scream at the contractors they simply walk away and do it on another job or continue after you leave. What needs to be done is the code offices need to add a flashing inspection to the list of the other inspections going on. What I did in a township near me where a LOT of homes were being clad with EIFS is convince them that a third party inspection should be required and signed off on the installation of these EIFS sytems. Guess what happend after they adopted this. The builders stopped using the stuff and started using Hard Coat stucco. They did not want to spend the ** to do the job right or spend the few hundred bucks on an independent inspection. Go figure on a Million dollar plus home.
The bottom line is do it right the first time. If it was not, do not go the quick fix route to save a few bucks as it may work for a while, it will eventually fail and you will have to do it again.

Thanks for the response. I'm in Florida and was one of the many homeowners that discovered after the 2004 hurricanes that their fairly new homes allowed wind driven rain to come through the walls. People found out that if you hold a garden hose up to the wall for a few minutes, water will start coming through the other side.

Wallcoat advertised that they could solve this problem and warranted against cracks and water intrusion from wind driven rain. They do seem to still exist. I got one call back and someone said they'd be out August 4, but nobody showed or responded again. Very disappointing...