Chimney Sweep in Echelon, NJ

Why Echelon chase chimneys fail from the top down

Water starts it. The chimney here is usually a framed chase, vinyl-sided, capped with a flat galvanized sheet. Flat metal holds rain. Thirty-year-old covers rust through at the seams and around the flue collar. Water then tracks down the pipe, soaks the insulation packed at the ceiling firestop, and shows up as a ceiling stain nowhere near the fireplace. Owners blame the roof. It is almost always the cover.

This part of Voorhees Township grew around the Echelon Mall from the mid-1970s into the 1990s. That means condos and townhouses, garden apartments too, with pockets of detached colonials. Chases are often shared, sitting on a shared roof plane. One failed cover can wet two or three units. Expect to loop in the association before anyone opens anything up.

These are listed, factory-built systems. Refractory panels and baffles, plus dampers, must be the original manufacturer's parts. Look inside the firebox for the model tag, usually low on the side wall. If the panels are cracked past the depth of a dime, or the maker is long gone, replacement of the whole unit beats patching it.

Creosote is rarely the problem. Use is light. Rust, cracked refractory and crushed firestop insulation are.