Chimney sweep and repair in Wilmington, IL

By Jacob Dove, founder of Friendship Chimney Sweep · 29 years in the trade

Wilmington, from the Gemini Giant to the subdivisions

The Gemini Giant now stands at the entrance to South Island Park, Catfish Days still fills the riverfront every July, and the old buildings along Water Street, including the Eagle Hotel, date from when Wilmington was a mill town on the Kankakee. The houses of that era have chimneys to match: soft brick, lime mortar, tile liners if they were lucky, and a century of river humidity and freeze-thaw. We do the same restoration-grade masonry here that we do in Kankakee and Momence, and we camera-inspect every one before a stove or insert goes in.

The subdivisions between town and I-55 are twenty to thirty years old, which puts their factory-built fireplaces at the age where chase covers rust and refractory panels crack. Homes near the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie on the north side get the full force of the wind off the prairie, and we replace more blown-off caps in Wilmington than in most towns. Direct-vent gas fireplaces in those homes need annual tune-ups, and the second-floor laundry rooms need their vents cleaned.

Chimney flashing, crickets and the leak that is not the roof

When water shows up on a ceiling next to a chimney, the roofer usually gets called first, and the roofer usually caulks the flashing and leaves. Six months later it leaks again. Chimney flashing is a two-part system. The step flashing is L-shaped pieces woven into the shingles and turned up against the chimney. The counterflashing is a second set of pieces let into a groove cut in the mortar joint, the reglet, and bent down over the step flashing. Water that gets behind the counterflashing runs onto the step flashing and out onto the roof. When the counterflashing is simply caulked to the face of the brick instead of let into the joint, which is how most of the leaking chimneys in Wilmington were done, the caulk fails in a few seasons and the water goes straight down the back of the chimney.

The fix is to reset or replace the step flashing, cut a proper reglet, install counterflashing into it and seal the joint with a flexible sealant that is not carrying the whole load. On a chimney that sits on the downhill side of a roof, a cricket, a small peaked diverter built behind the chimney, keeps snow and water from piling against the back wall. Building codes require a cricket on any chimney more than 30 inches wide on the ridge-side face. We check flashing on every roof visit, and we fix it the way it should have been done the first time.

Local links for Wilmington

Wilmington resources: City of Wilmington · Wilmington High School

Services in Wilmington

All seven services at published prices, grouped with Braidwood and Manhattan jobs. No travel charge.

• Chimney sweeping
• Level 1 and Level 2 inspections
• Masonry repair — restoration masonry on the Water Street era homes
• Stainless relining
• Caps, crowns and dampers — replacing caps the prairie wind has taken
• Gas fireplace tune-ups
• Dryer vent cleaning