The crown is the chimney's own roof: the sloped cap of masonry that covers the top of the stack and sheds the weather away from the brick below. When the crown is sound, every storm rolls off the edge and falls clear. When it cracks, every storm gets a little further inside, and the stack starts dying from the top down. Most of the ruined chimneys we are called to started with a cracked crown that nobody could see from the ground.
Crown work here comes in two honest grades. A crown with minor cracking gets chased, filled and sealed, and we will happily do that when it is the right fix. A crown that is crumbling, undersized or poured wrong in the first place gets recast: formed and cast anew with a proper overhang and drip edge, so water falls clear of the brick instead of crawling down its face. Patching a spent crown is false economy, and we will say so plainly when that is what we find.
How a crown fails on the Front Range
Many crowns were struck flat from leftover mortar on the last day of the original build, with no overhang and no reinforcement. Mortar is not made for that job. It cracks in the sun, drinks the snowmelt, and the freeze and thaw that Colorado runs all winter pries the cracks wider each cycle. Water then walks down inside the stack, and the damage shows up a season later as spalled brick, stained ceilings and masonry repairs that could have been avoided.
The signs a crown is going
- Cracks you can trace across the top surface, hairline or better.
- Stain lines or white mineral bloom running down the stack from the top course.
- Brick faces flaking just below the crown, where the water gets in first.
- The crown edge crumbling to gravel in the gutter or on the shingles.
Done proper, top to bottom
A recast crown gets a real overhang, a formed drip edge and a waterproof coat over the finished work. While the ladder is up, the cap gets sighted and the top courses of brick get read, because crown, cap and upper joints live and die together. That is also why the free inspection always climbs to the top rather than judging a chimney from the yard.
What crown work costs
A chase-and-seal is modest work; a full recast is a proper job of forming and casting. Which one your stack needs is exactly what the free look determines, and then the price comes in writing before anything starts. The pricing page tells the whole of how prices get made here.
Frequently asked about crowns
What is the difference between the crown and the cap?
The crown is masonry: the cast top of the stack itself. The cap is metal: the fitted hardware that covers the flue opening and screens it. They work as a pair, the crown shedding water off the stack and the cap keeping it out of the flue, and a chimney wants both sound.
Can I just seal the cracks myself with caulk?
A tube of caulk on a cracked crown is a bandage on a broken bone. It may shed one season's rain, but the crack keeps working underneath and the water finds the next way in. A proper repair chases the crack to sound material and fills it with the right compound, or recasts the crown when it is past that.
How long does a recast crown last?
Cast right, with an overhang, a drip edge and a waterproof coat, a crown should outlast decades of Colorado weather. It is the sort of work you should only have to buy once, which is why we would rather recast a spent crown than patch it twice.