Month: July 2026

A friend noticed a damp, musty smell coming from her living room fireplace the week after a February thaw. When she called a masonry technician from Superior Chimney, to take a look, and found that water had been working its way behind the bricks for years. What started as a small crack now meant her chimney needed structural repairs before she could safely use it again.

Chimney repairs are any work done to restore the structural and weatherproof condition of a chimney. This can include mortar joint repair, brick replacement, crown repair, flue repair, and cap or flashing replacement. Most Chicagoland homeowners discover the need for chimney repairs often times after winter, when the freeze and thaw cycles have already done its damage. Uncovering the symptoms early is the best way to keep chimney repairs down. Let’s discuss how that can be done.

Why Chicagoland Weather Is Especially Hard on Chimneys

Chicagoland has some of the most polarized weather. One day it’s a blizzard and the next week hot, humid and 100 degrees. That swing in weather conditions and temperatures are the real reasons why chimney repairs are needed.

When moisture from humid and rainy days’ soak into brick and mortar and then freezes, it expands. As it begins to thaw, the materials contract. Repeat that cycle dozens of times in a single Illinois winter and even solid masonry in the chimney starts to crack, spall, and separate from the joints holding it together. This is called the freeze thaw cycle. We’ve talked about it many times over the years, and it continues to be the single biggest reason homes need chimney repairs more often than homes in milder climates.

The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), the leading nonprofit certifying body for chimney professionals in the United States, notes that water intrusion is one of the most damaging and most preventable problems. If the problem is left to mature, it affects more than the appearance. It compromises the structure itself.

What Do Chimney Repairs Involve?

Not every chimney problem requires the same fix. Chimney repairs generally fall into a few categories. Understanding the difference, helps homeowners have a more informed conversation with the expert technician.

Mortar joint repair or tuckpointing. This involves removing deteriorated mortar between bricks and replacing it with fresh mortar, matched to the original color and texture as closely as possible.

Brick replacement. When individual bricks have spalled, meaning the face has cracked or popped off from trapped moisture, those bricks are removed and replaced.

Crown and cap repair. The crown is the concrete slab at the very top of the chimney. Cracks both big and small let water directly into the chimney flue. Chimney crown repair is often one of the most urgent forms of chimney repairs.

Flashing repair. Flashing is the barrier where the chimney meets the roofline. Loose, damaged or poorly installed flashing is a common source for water leaks. The roof gets the blame as it is the largest piece that covers the house. However, it certainly can be the overlooked chimney.

Flue and liner repair. Cracked flue tiles or damaged liners affect how safely a chimney vents smoke and combustion gases.

When to Know a Chimney Needs Repair
Most chimney damage shows up as small, easy to dismiss way. Let’s take a look at the following list. Be sure to print this out and keep it handy so if/when something happens, you know what to look for.

• Water stains near the fireplace or on the ceiling
• A brownish stain on the wall around your fireplace, or a stain on the ceiling near an exterior chimney. This means water is getting in somewhere it should not.
• Crumbling or missing mortar
• If you can see gaps between bricks, or mortar that flakes off when you touch it
• A leaning or visibly shifting chimney
• A chimney that appears to pull away from the house, even slightly, could indicate a structural issue
• White staining on the brick (efflorescence)
• Chalky white residue left behind as water evaporates out of the masonry. It is a visible sign that moisture is moving through brick
• Rusted damper or firebox components
• Metal parts inside a fireplace that are rusting are a strong indicator that moisture is present
• Debris in the fireplace
• Small chunks of brick, mortar, or tile landing in the firebox

What are the Various Types of Chimney Repair?

This is a compiled list of chimney repairs so you can be aware of what to look for. If you have any questions, contact us directly at 877-244-6349.

This post first appeared on https://www.superiorchimney.net

Over the winter and spring season, smoke was a common occurrence at my neighbors house. Since they are new to homeownership, they didn’t realize smoke was to go outside, and nothing was to backtrack inside. When there’s a smoke problem from the fireplace, question it. The answer can be as simple as a fireplace fan.

A fireplace fan is a mechanical exhaust fan, often called an Exhausto fan, Enervex fan, or chimney extractor fan, that mounts on top of a chimney to pull smoke up and out of your home. It corrects the draft process caused by undersized flues, low chimney height, or negative pressure inside the home. Now that you know what it is in a nutshell, let’s take a closer look.

What Is a Fireplace Fan?

A fireplace fan is a powered ventilator installed at the top of a chimney flue. This is different than a chimney cap. A chimney cap protects from animals, weather elements and debris from entering your home. A fireplace fan actively draws air and combustion gases up and out of the house.

These fans go by several names depending on the manufacturer and region. You may see them listed as:
• Exhausto fans
• Enervex fans
• Fireplace chimney fans
• Flue fans
• Chimney extractor fans

Regardless of the name, the function is the same: create enough draft to overcome whatever it is preventing the chimney from extracting the smoke naturally.

Why Do Chimneys Smoke?

Before choosing a fan, it helps to understand what actually causes smoke to enter a living room from the chimney. According to chimney physics research published by the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), venting problems generally fall into a small number of categories: spillage, back drafting, flow reversal, wind induced downdraft, and inadequate flow.

Spillage happens when some combustion gases escape into the room while the rest continue moving up the chimney. It is often the first sign of a draft problem.

Back drafting is a more serious problem. The CSIA describes it as a condition where chimney flow is fully reversed. Now all of the gases go into your home and nothing goes outside.

Negative pressure inside the home is one of the most common causes. Modern homes are sealed tightly for energy efficiency. Range hoods, bathroom fans, and clothes dryers all exhaust air outward. The air needs to be replaced from somewhere. In a tight house, the best path is often from the chimney flue.

Other contributors include an undersized or oversized flue, a chimney that goes beyond the roofline, or a fireplace design that is just hard too vent such as a corner unit.

How a Fireplace Fan Solves Problems

A fireplace fan replaces the natural draft with a mechanical draft. The mechanical fan can 0extract air and smoke from the flue and get rid of it at the top of the chimney.

This matters because the fan fixes the pressure problem (in the chimney). A properly sized fireplace fan will:

• Establish negative pressure inside the flue so smoke has nowhere to go but up and out
• Operate regardless of wind direction or outdoor temperature
• Allow speed adjustment from inside the room to match fire size and airflow needs

Types of Fireplace Fans

Most residential fireplace fans fall into one of two categories: rooftop mounted extractor fans (the Exhausto and Enervex style units) and inline or booster fans installed lower in the flue system.

The table below compares the two approaches.

This post first appeared on https://www.superiorchimney.net