Chimney Caps
An Open Chimney Is Serious Business.
• A Cap Keeps Out The Rain
If this were the only reason for installing a cap it would be enough. I have seldom seen an uncapped chimney over five years old that was not suffering from some kind of water damage. Go over to your fireplace right now and look at the back firewall near the base. Take a screwdriver or coin and run it across the mortar in the bricks. Seem a little crumbly? Or maybe it's obvious just looking at it. Rain puddles upon the smoke shelf, mixes with creosote in the chimney and turns into a highly corrosive acid. It then seeps down and attacks the mortar joints on the back wall of the fireplace. It becomes weak and presto, the bricks on that wall come loose. Besides that:
• Rain soaks into the mortar joints in the flue. When it freezes it expands eroding and weakening the mortar bands and, thus, the whole chimney. Such a chimney becomes very weak with time.
• Rain can set off a bad smell in the chimney. This will happen in warm weather, especially if the chimney is dirty or has bird droppings on the shelf.
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