Masonry and Chimney Repair in Elk Ridge

Why the weather here is worse for masonry than the valley's

When the inversion settles over Utah Valley, the towns on the floor spend days under a grey lid that never really warms up and never really cools down. Up on this bench you are frequently above it, in sunshine. That sounds like the better deal, and to live in it is. To masonry it is not. Sun on a south or west face during the day pushes the surface temperature well above freezing and melts any snow sitting on the crown and in the joints. Then the sky clears at night, the heat radiates straight out, and everything that thawed freezes again. Water expands when it freezes. A joint that goes through that cycle a hundred times in a winter is being pried apart a hundred times.

The damage shows in a specific order and it is worth knowing the sequence. First the crown, the concrete cap on top of the stack, develops hairline cracks. Then those cracks let water into the top courses of brick. Then the mortar in those courses turns sandy and starts falling out when you rub it. Then the brick faces begin to spall, flaking away in thin sheets because the water froze just behind the surface. Catch it at the crown and it is a small job. Catch it at spalling brick and you are rebuilding courses.

North-facing masonry has its own problem, which is the opposite one. A north face on a hillside home may not see direct sun for months, so it never dries. Damp masonry going into a hard freeze is doing the same thing as the cycling south face, just slower and more evenly. When we survey a chimney up here we look at every elevation, because the failure mode is different on each.

Snow, ice and the flashing

The other repair that keeps us busy in Elk Ridge involves the joint where the chimney meets the roof. Roofs here carry real snow. Snow that melts against a warm chimney and refreezes at the colder eave builds ice, and ice backs water up under the shingles and against the flashing. Counterflashing that was surface-sealed rather than let into a mortar joint will not hold against standing water. When we redo flashing on a chimney up here we cut a proper reglet into the masonry, set the counterflashing into it and seal it there, so the joint is mechanical rather than dependent on a bead of sealant. Done that way it lasts as long as the roof.

Two things we will tell you honestly. Sealing the outside of a chimney that is taking water in at the crown makes the problem worse, because the water is then trapped. And repointing over crumbling mortar without cutting the old joints back to sound material is a cosmetic job that will fail in a few seasons. We would rather do less work properly than more work that does not last. Licensed and insured.