Chattanooga TN Chimney Crown Repair
Chimney Solutions of Chattanooga provides chimney crown repair, rebuilding and waterproofing in the Greater Chattanooga area along with Northwest Georgia from Rome GA to Rossville GA. Other communities in our service area include Harrison TN, Middle Valley TN, Dalton GA, and Chatsworth GA.
Chimney crowns are concrete slabs that cover the entire top of a chimney, minus the flue opening. If a crown starts to crack and deteriorate, which isn’t uncommon after years of service, your chimney system will be vulnerable to incoming moisture and the damage it causes.
Here’s what you need to know about chimney crowns.
Chimney Crown Construction
A properly built crown will be made of a strong concrete material and will form a thick slab that is angled toward the ends and extends several inches beyond the vertical walls of the chimney stack.
For a crown to do its job, each of the above-mentioned elements is important: the material, the angle and the overhang.
Crown Damage in Chattanooga
Our chimney technicians do a lot of crown work throughout Chattanooga and nearby communities. Commonly, we’re called out because the homeowner has noticed some level of damage and wants us to follow up on it.
When we visit the home, we may see just a few small cracks within the crown, or we may see a crown that’s almost completely deteriorated. Several things can cause damage to a chimney crown, including:
- Inferior materials used to make the slab (mortar, for example, is not a proper crown material)
- Shoddy practices in building the crown
- Earthquakes
- Lightning strikes
- Fierce hail storms
- Year after year of intense weather temperatures
When a Crown Becomes Compromised
Cracks in a chimney crown will allow water to seep in and begin a cycle of decay. In regions with cold winters, internal moisture can freeze and then expand, further breaking apart the crown.
When water is allowed to bypass the crown, it moves into interior chimney areas, where it can damage the masonry, the chimney liner and even adjacent materials of the home, depending on the condition of the chimney’s interior bricks.
In addition, moisture collecting in damp, unvented spaces can lead to a dangerous outbreak of mold.
Bottom line is that you could be looking at thousands of dollars in repair and remediation costs with a faulty chimney crown.
Chimney Crown Repair and Rebuilding in Chattanooga
The skilled technicians at Chimney Solutions have several strategies to deal with our Chattanooga customers’ damaged chimney crowns.
Crown repair
A chimney crown often can be repaired by filling in cracks with patching material. This simple job can add many years of life to the crown.
Crown rebuilding
In cases of moderate to severe damage, we recommend having our masons remove the old crown and construct a new one. For this work, we use a strong concrete material and design the crown with an overhang and an angle for water to run off and away from the chimney structure.
Crown sealing
When there are just a few cracks and no serious deterioration in the crown, we use an industrial-grade crown sealant. This product does a great job at keeping rainwater and snow off the crown.
An Excellent Chimney Starts Here
When it’s time for chimney work at your Chattanooga home, call the experts at Chimney Solutions. Our trained crew puts service and craftsmanship above all else.
Reach a chimney professional today by calling 423-551-9912 or contacting us online.
1155 McFarland 400 Drive Alpharetta, GA, 30004 USA
sweeps@chimneysolutions.com • (770) 255-1300