St. Anne farmhouse chimney with no cap: thirty years of rain on the smoke shelf

By Jacob Dove, Friendship Chimney Sweep

The house

An 1890s farmhouse on a county road outside St. Anne, brick chimney on the north gable, one flue. The family had used the fireplace occasionally and stopped a few years ago because it smoked. They asked us to see whether it was worth fixing. The chimney had never had a cap; you could see sky from the firebox.

What water does

A twelve-inch flue opening catches gallons of water in a good storm. Over thirty years that is thousands of gallons, and all of it landed on the smoke shelf, the flat ledge behind the damper. The shelf was full of wet, packed debris that had turned to something like mud. The cast iron damper had rusted to its frame and would not move, which is why the fireplace smoked: it was half open and stuck. The water had run down through the firebox joints and taken the refractory mortar with it, leaving firebrick loose in the back wall. Efflorescence on the outside brick told the same story from the other side.

The order of repairs

We did it in the order that stops the damage first. Shovel and vacuum out the smoke shelf. Free the damper, which took heat and patience, then replace it with a top-sealing damper on the flue top, which seals better than the old plate ever did and serves as the cap. Repoint the firebox with refractory mortar and reset the loose firebrick. Camera-scan the flue, which turned out to be lined and in fair shape because the water had run down the middle rather than the tile joints. Then a crown coat on the cracked crown. The fireplace works, the family used it at Christmas, and the whole job cost less than the tuckpointing that another ten years of water would have made necessary.

If this sounds like your house: we handle chimney caps, crowns and dampers across Kankakee County, and our St. Anne page covers what we usually find there. Call (815) 449-4264, 7am to 9pm, any day.

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