This last winter took quite a toll on our chimney. Found a nice pile of brick pieces that had falled off the face of about 10 bricks from the freeze/thaw abuse. How does one fix such brick faces, or do you just water proof (Chimnet Saver) and not repair?
Thanks Todd
Dont use sealer your brick must breath, plus it wont work, Use new brick or cover it in cement
How old is the chimney?
I'd personally prefer to replace the damaged bricks entirely. Hopefully you have access to a similar style of brick, as an odd match can really stick out. This is rather tedious by hand, but you have less chance of damaging neighboring brick than with power tools. It's a pretty straight-forward but labor-intensive project, and some people aren't much for roof work. YMMV.
When watersealing, make sure to use a breathable product designed for masonry (which is sounds like you were already considering). Standard watersealers can do more harm than good with chimneys.
HTH,
mark
You don't fix the brick faces, you chisel out the broken bricks and replace them. However, it's more important to find out what's causing the spalling and address that, or the new bricks will simply do the same. What's the history of this chimney?
John
Healthy brick doesn't do that even in the worst freeze-thaw conditions (in fact, it doesn't even need freeze-thaw to happen), and shouldn't ever need sealers to keep it from happening or getting worse. This indicates a moisture-related problem, or perhaps one that's occurring inside the chimney caused by something not right going on with the boiler or fireplace depending on which of those two is hooked up to that particular chimney. Problems like that should be inspected and repaired if necessary by a professional mason and the problem causing it identified and eliminated by a professional HVAC guy (if it's a boiler chimney) or whoever deals with fireplace issues if it's a fireplace chimney.
AJS
In which case the guy can just watch big shards of cement join his pile of brick shards since cement or new brick doesn't address the underlying problem causing it in the first place. Besides, standing on a pitched roof with a big saw isn't exctly the most intelligent thing for a DIYer without scaffolding or pro masonry skills.
AJS
Thanks for all the replies. A little history. Its your standard
1970's 2 story chimny. Original. Couple bricks up top near cap have been poorly fixed with just what looks like cement coating to mimic the missing shards of brick. All the damage happens in top 10 rows or so, preumably the most exposed.Only thing running thru it is the fireplace. Firteplace has been cleaned an expecyed. Nothing abnormal found on inspection. Suggested I could use a new weathertight -style cap, thats all.
Have used sealer buts its the same Chimney saver type used by the pro's from Saver systems - supposed to breath well.
We have always seen a few chips off every year, but this year was kind of drastic.
So how does one chip out brick anyway - cold chisel and ladder? ;^)
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