Your chimney takes 40 inches of rain a year. We keep it out of your living room.
Masonry repair, leak diagnosis, crown and cap work, sweeps, and inspections
for University Place, Fircrest, Steilacoom, and west Tacoma. Most of the homes
here were built between 1955 and 1980, and most of those chimneys are original.
Fifty to seventy wet winters is a long shift for brick and mortar.
Freeze-thaw damage gets the headlines in national chimney guides, but the
Puget Sound lowlands run a different program: near-constant moisture from
October through May, moss that holds water against the masonry, and salt-laden
wind off the Sound for homes near Chambers Bay and Day Island. Water soaks
into brick, the occasional cold snap expands the moisture, faces of brick pop
off (spalling), mortar joints wash out, and the crown cracks. None of this
announces itself until a stain shows up on the ceiling next to the fireplace.
The five-minute driveway check: step back where you
see the whole chimney. White staining, green growth, missing mortar lines,
a tilted or missing rain cap, or brick faces flaking off all mean water is
already inside the masonry. Any one of those is worth a phone call before
November.
You call, we look, you get a straight answer. Every visit starts with a
ground-level and roofline assessment, photos of what we find, and a written
scope with a firm price. Small repairs are often same-visit. Bigger work like
relines or rebuilds gets scheduled with the price locked before anyone climbs
a ladder. No pressure sales, no mystery line items, and if a chimney is safe
as-is, we say so and leave.