Brick Work & Aluminum Chimney Flashing Photo & Description Page

Updated 10 / 2014

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Aluminum Chimney Flashing Work I Use to Do in the mid 90s

In these before and after photos it shows the messy and ugly cheap mastic (tar) used to seal the leaks around the raw aluminum flashing in the photo on the left, which tends to last only a few years before the Sun light has compromised it. This also does not allow for any expansion and contraction as the temperatures change through out the seasons.

I had to chip away at the hardened tar with a chisel for several hours to clean up this ugly mess and see where the mortar lines are before I could proceed with the re-flashing job. I replaced the step-flashing that is slid under each row of shingles and lays up against the chimney with a gray painted aluminum to match the shingles, which is much thicker than the unpainted aluminum that I had stripped off. Then used a red painted aluminum counter-flashing to over lap the step-flashing and mortared deep into the chimney only in the mortar lines, knowing to never cut into the bricks.

 Caulk should not be needed if it is flashed correctly. This 2 part flashing allows for movement while maintaining the seal as the clay material expands at a different rate than the wood frame structure around it. This is a very important detail.

This house is in the Hawthorne District. I had replaced their gutters and recommended they consider having the flashing redone, so they asked if I could do this work for them, along with re-flashing their skylights. I later covered a dining table with 16oz copper for them.

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I rebuilt this chimney from the roof line up with all new bricks and a red painted aluminum counter-flashing.  I thought it looked a lot better than the galvanized or brown painted steel that most roofers use (if they use any new flashing at all).

The mortar was so crumbly that I was able to lift the bricks off with my bare hands.  Now days I would only use copper flashing. The black metal strap is to hold their TV antenna in place after I was done.

Chimney stepflashing

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This is a house in West Linn on Rosemont and Suncrest where I also replaced their gutters and rebuilt this chimney from the roof line on up.  We later did the gutters on the house in the back ground as well.

It is important to make sure the top of the chimney extends at least 2 feet higher than any flammable surface that is within 10 feet away to the side.

Working on such a steel roof it was necessary to build a special custom scaffold platform to work on that is strong enough to hold the weight of a worker, tools, bricks and a bucket of mortar.  It also needs to sit gently on the roofing shingles without harm to them.  Sometimes this platform construction is half the work.  There is also a braced arm sticking out to the side of the roof with a rope and pulleys to hoist up buckets full of bricks and nrely mixed mortar. The whole assembly is custom fit and screwed together for easy removal when we are done, but not attached to the roof.

For this top cover, the cement is formed near the shape of the cap, and then the cap is pressed and tapped onto it for a tight fit, so the cement fills into each crevice of the cover for a nice solid support of the aluminum cap. This chimney was only used for venting the exhaust of natural gas, so high heat was not an issue. For a more permanent installation I now realize I should have made this cap with copper in stead, but had limited experience with copper at that time.

This type of cap also has the advantage of giving the chimney a real working drip edge.  It has galvanized screws pressed into holes drilled into the center section, and driven into the mortar cap.  This way the cap cannot blow off in high wind if the painted aluminum were to become detached from the cement of the mortar.

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Helpful Roofing Information
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(a) Gutter Installation
(b) Gutter Debris Protection Options
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1999 Better Business Award

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