The masonry Repair and fireplace experts at Brick Repair LLC have been serving West Bloomfield and Oakland County Michigan for over 12 years. This chimney was built out of panel brick. Panel brick is a cross between brick and ceramic tile. The home owners contacted us about water leaking into the fireplace from the chimney. In order to ensure that that the leak was properly addressed we recommended tuckpointing the damaged mortar, replacing the chimney crown and flashing the chimney.
Our Masonry project began with setting up the scaffold. This was kind of a job in itself. Being a typical Michigan walk-out basement on a not so typical pristine home in West Bloomfield, Michigan, the height from the top of the chimney to the ground at the back of the house was easily 50 ft. Once we had all of our scaffolding set the first task was to address the tuckpointing. We began this process by grinding out all of the mortar joints in between the brick. We then brushed all the joints clean and took a propane torch to them to dry and warm the area we were going to repair. Torching the area was done to insure our mortar would set properly in Michigan’s February weather. Once the area we were going to tuckpoint was warm and dry we began pointing in fresh mortar.
After pointing in the fresh mortar we torched the joints again and then struck them with an s-jointer to ensure proper sealing against the brick faces. Once we had jointed all of the brick we began the next stage of our repair. 
Once the crown was completed it was onto the next step of our chimney repair. This involved some nontraditional flashing methods, but guarantees a water-tight seal. This is accomplished by grinding out a 3 inch deep cut into the masonry 1½ inches above the flashing. Waterproof rubber membrane is then inserted into the cut and torched down over the top of the existing aluminum flashing. Once the rubber membrane is firmly in place we proceed to point fresh mortar into the crevice above the chimney flashing. After the new flashing is torched and mortared into place we then cut any excess rubber away and seal all of the seams with neoprene in order to ensure a water tight seal.
At Brick Repair LLC we know of no other masonry repair and restoration company using all of the above methods combined in order to provide a 100% leak proof chimney.
Brick Repair LLC We are happy to provide a free estimate for the following services: chimney repair, chimney leak repair, masonry repair, masonry wall construction, chimney construction, chimney crown repair, tuckpointing, replacing damaged brick, concrete, cement, concrete step replacement, concrete step repair, fireplace repair, fireplace construction, cinderblock repair, and cinderblock construction.
We look forward to serving the residents of: Oakland County, Wayne County, Genesee County, and Macomb County.
