Chimney Cap Repair & Cap Installation

What Is a Chimney Cap?

The coverings on your chimney are called a chimney cap. They are made from steel, copper mesh, or galvanized metal and come in various styles to match the outside of your home. A chimney cap protects your home from rain and downdrafts by the cap on top of a mesh ring.

Reduce Moisture

It’s a good idea to install chimney caps to reduce the amount of water in the house. You’ll get water in your chimney if you live in a place that gets much rain. You want to do everything you can to prevent this from occurring, of course.

Water in your chimney can and often does cause damage to dampers, chimney liners, and even the mortar joints. This water can produce mold and mildew growth in your chimney, which you want to keep out of your home for obvious reasons. It can cause your house to become less comfortable by raising the level of humidity throughout the home.

Keeping Out The Critters

When you’re burning fires in your chimney, it’s not going to seem like an excellent place for animals to live, but during the warm summer months, you could have any number of creatures set up shop there. Many animals find your chimney an excellent place to set up their homes, such as birds, raccoons, and squirrels.

If you start having baby birds or animals fall into your fireplace from the chimney, this will get your attention quickly about the necessity of a proper chimney cap. These cute critters will also leave behind their nest materials that are dry and catch on fire when you light your first fire of the season. Having a chimney cap that is professionally installed and in good working order will help keep the pests out of your chimney.

Blocking Winter Downdrafts

Chimneys are not designed to be a one-way passage for air to move out of our houses. When the wind is blowing in a specific direction, it can cause a downdraft through a chimney passage that allows the air in. This downdraft is when the wind blows back down your chimney and into your home, raising your utility bill, bringing in fireplace odors throughout the house, and more.

Downdrafts in the winter can make your home very cold. With a downdraft, you may experience smoke in your house if you have a fire. A chimney cap can keep the downdrafts out of your home.

Stop Sending Sparks To Your Homes Surroundings

Have you seen sparks from a campfire go up into the night? When you light a fire in your fireplace, these same sparks can go through your chimney, and nothing is stopping one of those embers from starting a pile of leaves on fire, old dried underbrush, or even a roof fire. One single spark could light your roof on fire. The risk of a fire can be mitigated by a chimney cap with a spark arrestor. Let the professionals at Sweep Your Chimney help protect your home through the installation and maintenance of a proper chimney cap

Prevent Blocked Flues

If you clean out your gutters every year, you’ll know how much debris can come across your roof. Leaves from nearby trees, twigs, branches, and other materials can build up and cause problems. But what’s stopping all that debris from making its way into your chimney?

Without a chimney cap in place, all manner of debris can build up in your chimney. With the risk of the flue becoming blocked, leading to smoke and carbon monoxide back drafting into the home. Or, when you light your first fire of the season, that debris can go up in flames and wind up catching your house on fire. Putting in a chimney cap can keep that debris out and your fireplace safe.

Types of Chimney Caps

Chimneys come in many different styles and varieties, so you can surely reason that chimney caps do as well. When choosing the correct chimney cap for your home, you want to make sure to select the suitable material. The three most popular options used in most residential chimneys are stainless steel, galvanized metal, and copper.

For budget-conscious homeowners, they may elect to go with the cheapest option, a galvanized chimney cap. These caps don’t work well with gas log fireplaces, and they can rust out and cause damage to your home. Stainless steel and copper mesh are more expensive to purchase, but they have a great appearance. They don’t require much in terms of maintenance when compared to galvanized caps, so these two options provide a higher level of protection for the homeowner in the long run.

When you are ready to explore the best option for your home’s chimney cap problems, call us at Sweep Your Chimney, and we will provide you with all of the options for your specific situation. We look forward to helping you solve your chimney cap problem.