Monday, April 4, 2016

Chimney Tuckpointing

What is this? Yes, I am still alive and believe it or not, I have been working on stuff and taking photos thinking all along I would be doing a blog post. See, here is proof. I finished the last section of wall in the living room before Christmas...or is my tree still up??? Maybe. No, the husband starts whining mid-January when it's still up. Party Pooper.


The main project I had done recently was the chimney. Water was coming in around the chimney and I just assumed it was the flashing and started calling roofers to see if they could check it out. I think I called 8? 9? roofers and ONE showed up. He came down from the roof and showed me this photo:

Yikes! I knew the joints in the chimney were bad but I didn't realize they were this bad. We figured this is were the water was coming in so then I had to start the process of who does tuckpointing? The roofer knew a guy so I thought he would come out and give me an estimate but the roofer just called me back and said his guy "did" chimneys for $600.  He "does" chimneys? what like takes a bag of cement and slathers it on? I moved on to a company who has done a lot of historic buildings around town and they gave me a $4800 estimate. What!? Next. I found another company who also works on historical buildings and also the owner lives a few blocks from here. They gave me a $1300 estimate which seemed like a happy medium to me. Maybe it's still expensive? I don't have any experience on masonry estimates. Also, I don't have too much of a choice of contractors who correctly work on old houses around here and I wanted my chimney to look nice!

Sorry, I'm not climbing on the roof just to get an "after" shot but you can see white blob areas on the brick where someone had previously gone up and just caulked missing joints.

I didn't like the fact they randomly showed up at my door early one morning. Possibly the disadvantage of him living close "oh, my guy got back into town late last night so we thought we would pop by and see if he could get started" BUT I am pleased they came right out as soon as it got warm enough and it is all done before the spring rains

6 comments:

  1. I'm not sure where you're located, but we spent just over $3K to have all our exterior masonry repointed and they also rebuilt our chimney. That was back in 2010.

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    1. I wish! I couldn't find many who would even look much less work on old houses around here so we definitely could some competition to lower the prices! Anyone out there who RESTORES brickwork on old houses in the Lincoln, NE area let me know! my porch stoop/foundation still need some work ;)

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  2. I think people forget that chimneys tend to be constructed as an afterthought. With old houses, their often simply forgotten, unless you happen to be roofing it yourself, or your roofers are kind enough to tell you "Your chimney is pretty bad". It's definitely one of the more neglected aspects of older homes (and garages!).

    Pleasance Faast @ Shelton Roof

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  3. I think you probably made the right choice when it came to taking the $1300 chimney estimate. That first guy might have been perfectly qualified, but his friend and his price didn't instill confidence in his work. Maybe if he had contacted you it would have been different, but at least you didn't have to shell out that $4800 from the other company!

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  4. Wow, that picture of the corner of your chimney is eye opening: those are veritable doorways into your home! Good for you for getting this done. A couple of years ago, we had a similar problem and it caused all sorts of water damage and mold growth in our attic, and it was a huge pain and expense to clean up.

    Terence Warner @ Brunwin Roofing

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