Posted: 10/25/2010 4:48:44 PM EDT
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Okay guys, here's the plot...
Bought my house five years ago. House is 22 years old. One previous owner. House has a wooden chimney (I have since learned these can be VERY problematic), cedar lap siding. Home inspector I hired when I bought the house did not identify any problem with the chimney. During some high winds a while back a trim board near the crown blew off. I got up and resecured it with carpenter nails as a temporary fix, until I could get a contractor out to evaluate it. At that time, I did notice that the piece of plywood that was exposed where the trim board came off had water stains and looked like it was delaminating. I had a contractor come out and evaluate it. Company has been in roof and chimney repair business for 30 years. I checked their Better Business Bureau report and they had an excellent rating. After talking to some people, I decided to go with them. I wanted the job done quickly, before the cold weather set in, and didn't want to dick around with it. They basically rebuilt the whole chimney. - Removed all the old cedar lap siding. - Removed all the plywood underneath (most of which was rotting). - Replaced all the plywood and insulation. - Replaced all the siding with Certainteed fiber cement siding. - Rebuilt the crown. - Replaced the old corrugated steel chase pan (which was badly rusted) with a new stainless steel one (slightly more expensive than corrugated, but will last a lot longer). The guy told me we could use cedar lap siding again if I wanted, but he said "it is just going to need to be replaced again someday because the same thing is going to happen again," whereas if we used the Certainteed "you will never have to do this again." The cost of the Certainteed was actually cheaper, because it comes pre-primed from the factory (ready for painting), whereas the cedar would have to be primed by hand. So I was sold on the Certainteed. Here is the old chimney (after they removed the chase pan and the trim boards around the crown - you can see the black stains where the plywood was rotting): 
And here is the new chimney after the job was completed last week (the grey paint was not completely dry near the top yet when this picture was taken): 
I am very satisfied with the job. My brother is a licensed general contractor (in another state) and when I told him what I paid, he said he thinks it was "slightly" high, but not outrageous. So I am curious and would like to hear from any experienced people in this area, what do you think would be a reasonable price (ballpark figure) to pay for this job? P.S. If you are thinking of buying a house with a wooden chimney, make sure you have it thoroughly checked out by your home inspector first. I think mine dropped the ball on this. |
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No idea on cost as i don't do that type of job. However, it is always a good idea to have the chimney of a home inspected by a chimney sweep before purchase. They are not cheap to repair. Make sure the sweep uses a camera to inspect the entire flue. This type of inspection is commonly referred to as a level 2 inspection. Home inspectors simply note the presence of a chimney. Many times, they have a disclaimer in the report stating they are not qualified to comment on the chimney or something to that effect.
I can't say for certain if a sweep would have caught this particular problem or not. Was any of this damage evident without removing parts? |
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Quoted:
No idea on cost as i don't do that type of job. However, it is always a good idea to have the chimney of a home inspected by a chimney sweep before purchase. They are not cheap to repair. Make sure the sweep uses a camera to inspect the entire flue. This type of inspection is commonly referred to as a level 2 inspection. Home inspectors simply note the presence of a chimney. Many times, they have a disclaimer in the report stating they are not qualified to comment on the chimney or something to that effect. I can't say for certain if a sweep would have caught this particular problem or not. Was any of this damage evident without removing parts? Not other than the delaminated plywood I noted underneath the one board that blew off, no. My brother (who has a lot more experience in this area than I do) said that a lot of times there is no way to tell this kind of stuff until they start dismantling it. |
| My $.02, take it for what it's worth, but I would have carried the crown up to the top, and extended the chase pan over it. You're going to have the smae problem that you had before. You're dumping water into the top of your crown (The horizontal joint of youe 1X4 and chimney face). I would also have added a kick to the edge of the pan. What did it cost? Around $2000? |