Chimney Sweep in Worth, IL

On most Worth homes the chimney is a short exterior brick stack built between the late 1940s and the 1960s, so it has seen decades of Illinois freeze-thaw. We look first at how deep the damage goes. A cracked or spalled crown, a missing cap, and soft joints in the top few courses are repairable without touching the rest of the stack, and that is the most common finding here. When the mortar has softened well down the exterior face, or the brick is shedding in layers below the roofline, a partial rebuild from the roofline up usually makes more sense than repointing something that will fail again in a few winters. We will tell you which one you are looking at and show you the photos behind that call.

Sometimes, but in Worth it is often the chimney's height, not a blockage. These are mostly single-story houses with low-pitch roofs, and the brick stacks sit barely above the roofline. A lot of them are marginal on the 10-foot/3-foot/2-foot rule to begin with. On a gusty day the wind pushes down over the roof and the flue loses its draft, so smoke spills into the room. We will sweep and inspect to rule out creosote, a nesting bird or a collapsed liner first, then measure the stack. If height is the problem, extending the flue or fitting the right cap is the fix, and no amount of cleaning will change it.