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Waterproofing Services From Top Hat & Tails Can Extend The Life Of Your Masonry Chimney

Water is a truly wonderful thing: sustainer of life, bringer of beauty (from oceans to waterfalls), and washer of homes, cars and bodies, too. When we’re talking about chimney systems, however, water gets a less enthusiastic description: a chimney’s worst enemy.

This is a chimney with tile roofing in the rain.

While the materials used to build both masonry and prefabricated chimney systems are resilient and strong — from bricks and concrete to metal — they’re all susceptible to the negative effects of constant contact with water, from erosion and corrosion to complete destruction. As years pass and you and your family enjoy your fireplace, stove or insert, water is continually bearing down on that chimney, quietly and steadily working its way toward the interior and creating a leak.

How Water Can Damage A Masonry Chimney

Rain, snow and other precipitation, in and of themselves, can cause problems with your masonry chimney, eroding your mortar joints and causing them to crack or recede. As small imperfections occur, we also end up contending with another, often more damaging issue, the freeze/thaw cycle.

The easiest explanation of the freeze/thaw cycle: Moisture hits your masonry chimney, and weaves its way into small cracks and imperfections; when temperatures shift and that moisture freezes and thaws, it expands within the brick, pushing those small cracks and imperfections open further. That can mean bigger cracks and gaps, or it can mean spalling — flaking and crumbling that can destroy your brick completely.

 This chimney is older with algae growing on top and in need of masonry work and waterproofing.What We Can Do To Protect Your Masonry

All of the above is meant to explain why your masonry chimney can greatly benefit from the added protection of a waterproof sealant. At Top Hat & Tails, we recommend and use a specially formulated chimney waterproofing product that stops moisture from being absorbed by your masonry, but still allows the bricks and mortar to “breathe”, venting vapors and small particles as they were designed to.

Waterproofing not only works to hold off chimney leaks now, but can extend the life of your masonry long-term as well. Over years of applying it to clients’ chimneys, we’ve come to strongly feel that it’s a small and hugely worthwhile investment in the life of your chimney.

Schedule Your Waterproofing Appointment Today

If you’d like to learn more about chimney waterproofing or would like to make an appointment, give Top Hat & Tails a call at 973-450-1947 or click here! We look forward to helping you keep your chimney in tip top shape for years to come!

 

Talk to us about the benefits of having a top-mounted damper installed in your chimney system. It’s one of our popular, energy-saving chimney services here at Top Hat & Tails.

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