Spring Is the Best Time for Chimney Masonry Repairs

After a busy winter burning season, it’s a smart idea to have your chimney and fireplace inspected and start scheduling any repairs that might be needed prior to the next burning season. In cold-weather regions, spring is definitely the best time to arrange for inspections and repairs, particularly when masonry work such as chimney rebuilding or tuckpointing will be involved.

Masonry repairs

While some chimneys suffer serious damage (major chimney fire, destructive earthquake, etc.) in the middle of the winter and must be dealt with immediately, more moderate chimney structural damage is best not undertaken during the worst of the winter.

The main reason for this is that mortar can freeze when it’s too cold outside, and it can take a lot longer to set up and cure, even if the weather doesn’t actually freeze. Mortar is the “glue” that holds your chimney together; without a high-quality mortar compound, bricks may never become stable and another round of repairs likely will be required.

What about the summer for chimney masonry work?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with scheduling repairs for a damaged chimney in the summer. However, two problems may present themselves:

Chimney repair companies tend to get busier in the summer and scheduling may be tricky. Additionally, your family’s busy-ness during the summer months might further complicate the scheduling challenge.

Depending on the type and extent of damage that was caused to your chimney over the winter, it may not be wise to wait until summer to have it dealt with. This is especially true if damaged brick work has caused the chimney to begin to lean or if a chimney fire has seriously compromised the masonry.

Let’s just get our chimney work done in the fall

If you wait until fall to arrange for a chimney inspection (which is usually how the need for chimney masonry repair is discovered), you may learn that the level of damage present requires a considerable amount of work (and time) to fix correctly. Scheduling a large chimney repair project could be more problematic in the fall than in the summer, because the fall is when chimney service crews historically are the busiest. Although a lot of the work being done at that time includes relatively simple chimney sweeping and minor repairs and maintenance, chimney company calendars are often pretty full with not a lot of room to fit in full-scale masonry work or chimney rebuilding. Keep in mind also that trying to get the necessary work finished too close to winter might mean extending the job into weather that’s not conducive to working with mortar in the outside air.

Black Moose Chimney & Stove of Antrim, NH, can help with all your chimney masonry repairs as well as chimney cleaning, inspection, component repair and more. We work year-round, but we suggest that you schedule masonry work in the spring so the job can be completed properly, safely and conveniently for everyone.

Speak with a CSIA-certified chimney expert at (603) 525-7905, and let us know how we can help.