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Chimney Repairs and Sweeping in Greater Victoria BC

Journeyman bricklayer and mason since 1974, Wett Certified Inspections, installations and Repairs

W.E.T.T. Wood Energy Technician

WETT Certified Inspections, Installations, Sweeping and Repairs

Chimney Repairs and Artistic Updates

Make sure to install a Carbon Monoxide Detector if you have a wood fired appliance in your home

This is one of my recent projects which involved repointing this 100 year old chimney, adding copper flashings & fittings and roof tile pieces to accent. Mortar was aged to look like original after repointing. Copper patina was induced with chemical.

In Progress showing how tiles were laid over flashing metals at chimney.

Here is same chimney with Victorian chimney pots added. We also installed the 100 year old Irish Pan Tiles on this roof. The tile roof is virtually leak proof as we installed a commercial grade "torch-on" membrane on the roof deck prior to the tile and grid system.

New Concrete Cap Installed on Brick Fireplace Chimney

Chimney Cap with Drip Edge

Repointing Chimney

Chimney Video Camera Inspections are available.

We can send our state of the art inspection camera down your chimney for a thorough look at the condition of flues and interior masonry or stainless sections. Call for appointment.

Safety On the job

Safety is important when working on roofs. Here is a chimney repair project in progress.

Stone Chimney And Wall Repairs

Cracked Stonework on chimneys or walls often presents additional problems because they are so costly to rebuild. My epoxy injection methods work well in these situations to keep costs to a minimum while providing exceptional structural bonding and strength. Once the stone structure is repaired properly the chimney or wall can be repointed to look like original.

Structural Chimney Repairs

When you have an outside chimney that is separating from the structure, we can often draw it in and secure it with a metal strap and bolts.

Chimney Fires and Cleaning

Chimneys need to be inspected and cleaned often. Always burn clean wood under 20% moisture content. If you burn wet or improper wood, creosote can accumulate very quickly and chimney fires can result. "Glazed creosote" (looks like varnish on the inside of your flue tile or pipe) needs to be specially tended to as creosote can swell 1400 times it's size during a fire and plug the entire flue. With modern fireplaces and wood stoves using much smaller sized chimney flues & pipes this is a serious concern.

Sweeping Stainless Steel chimney on tall steep roof.

This Chimney stack had experienced a very bad chimney fire, every one of the clay flue liners was cracked and broken from the heat of the creosote burning. We removed the chimney brick by brick and safely disposed of the rubble.

If your chimney has been badly patched and smeared up previously we can also clean this up to look great again.

Chimney Stuccoing

If your chimney is quite messy looking on the outside due to improper patching over the years, we can stucco it with white or an array of colors.. or parge it to look like concrete. It is an economical way to make things look good.

Flue Repairs

Cracked, separated and broken flues allow creosote to accumulate in the cracks and provide extra fuel for a chimney fire. The cracks also may allow combustion air to enter the chimney during a chimney fire to feed it. Old broken liners need to be removed and replaced.

Special Cautionary Note: If relining your chimney, the creosote in your chimney must be all removed first or a fire may occur between the liners or the chimney wall and the liner.

Sometimes a fireplace can transfer smoke between flue areas through cracked mortar joints between the two flue areas.

Draft and Smoking Issues

Smoking Fireplace or wood stove can have many causes. Here are a few:

Improper flue size or type
Plugged flue due to expanded creosote or damage caused in a chimney fire
Animals, birdnests or other debris in chimney
An outside chimney which is cold - works during hot fire but smokes on lighting and on dying fire.
Fireplace or woodstove located in a depressurized area of house - basement.
Appliances like range hoods, furnaces, water heaters, other fireplaces, leaky pot lights and/or attic hatches in ceiling taking available combustion air.
Wind reaction over roofs, trees or other buildings

Sometimes the house system will try and draw in replacement air through another fireplace or chimney. You will notice this when you can smell smoke in one room when a different fireplace is burning It is caused mostly by the difference in house pressurization between the 2 fireboxes or other air using appliances. It usually happens between fireplaces on different levels.

Smoking issues should be checked out immediately and thoroughly as carbon monoxide can be drawn into the house.

Fireplace Upgrades and Refacing

Here is a specialty fireplace front installed using 200 year old Transylvanian hand painted "Kachalofen" tiles. It features an up to date Regency insert designed to draw its combustion air from the crawl space. Safely drawing combustion and cooling air from a properly vented crawl space creates a fantastic heating improvement as far less heated house air is drawn up the chimney.

Properly supplying combustion air to a wood burning appliance also lessens the effects of house depressurization when other appliances like range hoods, furnaces, water heaters all compete for the air in the home.
Fireplaces and especially inserts, where you cannot see the components, need to be installed properly and cleaned and inspected often.
In British Columbia, only EPA rated wood burning appliances are allowed for new installations (US Environmental Protection Agency). They are tested to allow only 7gms of particulate emissions per hour. This is accomplished by a series of re-burners that burn the smoke to use all the fuel for heat.
- Also, be very careful when purchasing fireplaces or woodstove appliances to ensure that the appliance has Canadian certification on the fireplace label. Many appliances are imported and do not have these certifications, and your installation may not meet BC requirements
When installing a wood burning appliance all clearances to combustibles, walls, hearths, ember pads, fire clearances between masonry and framing must be done properly.
- An example - Simply putting a 4" brick wall or stone wall behind a fireplace or wood stove does not make it fireproof as heat transfers through brick very easily.
- An inspection for these proper clearances is a great idea, and may prevent a disaster as pyrolization (a lowering of combustion temperature) of combustibles occurs which reduces the combustion point of many combustible materials.

Wood Stoves

Chimney servicing and inspections
Flashings, caps
Roof braces
Radiation heat shields and ember pads

Masonry Repairs

Here are a couple of notable repair projects. I have completed many other more usual repairs but these are some of the finer projects.

These photos below are installing a new masonry railing on the top of a heritage building. The railing was made from a casting made from an existing baluster which became the mold for replacing the damaged section.