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Chimney repair

At my girlfriends house I noticed one row of mortar between the bricks had been CAULKED. The rest of it looks good but I'm afraid the top is being supported by the house and not the chimney footer. While removing the mortar and redoing it, should I try to drive some kind of wedge between the bricks to unload some of the weight off the house? I would then mortar most of it, then after a day or so remove the wedges and mortar the rest. Does this make sense?

Reply to
Tony Miklos
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I don't see how whether there is mortar, caulk, or something else between on from of bricks has any effect on whether the load is bearing on the roof or chimney foundation. The caulk was a hack job and it should be replaced with mortar.

Reply to
trader4

get a pro to look at the chimney. the largest danger is a cracked chimney cap.

rain gets between liner and outer bricks and freezes, liner breaks and falls in blocking flue.

occupants get carbon monoxide poisioning and can die... worst parrt is you cant even see the problem from the ground......

We got carbon monoxide poisioning here it was a very close thing. A friend who happened to be a volunteer fireman stopped to visit and recognized the symptoms

Reply to
bob haller

Never mind. I don't know why it's like it is, but about 6 feet up there is this 1 inch space between the rows of brick. Looking closer the four corners seem to be on solid mortar... about 1 inch thick. Then in between the rest of each side is something soft that has shrunken and that is why the caulking was added. Weird but it seems solid. I took pics but it's not going to show you much except painted caulking. Why was this done? And also, it was for an old old wood or coal stove that is no longer in use.

Reply to
Tony Miklos

It's more likely he simply ignores your posts.

Reply to
HeyBub

If it's not being used anymore, why not just take it down? My neighbor had the same situation. No more fireplace, but the chimney still there. It was definitely leaning away from the house a few inches near the top. We just started breaking it apart near the base until it fell over away from the house. It had a few bat lodgings fall out and there were a dozen bats or so crawling around the ground until they came out of their coma and flew away.

Reply to
willshak

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