Chimney Rebuilds
We rebuild chimneys using the original brick whenever possible. We can even get hard-to-find brick most of the time at an extra cost (they are usually shipped in from Missouri.)
Send Us Your Photos!
We do drive out and give estimates, but we have found that receiving photos prior to coming out can speed up the bidding process. Email to:
www.willamettechimney.com
Text To:
Call Us!
Chimney swifts and your chimney
Chimney swifts are migratory birds that travel from Peru to many places in North America ( including Oregon) during the late summer. These birds often find residence in uncapped chimneys where they build their nests and hatch their young. These birds often make loud...
Gallery Of Repairs
Rebuild in progress
RBIP2
20170930_152243
20170724_134519 – Copy
20170720_152402
20170910_150733
Howard lift 3
stucco4wc
stucco10wc
SalemFHRb
Coming up through the second floor in an old farm house.
Chimney rebuild Salem 22
Looking down from the second floor at the work on the first floor.
Pookie liner
oil exhaust pipe install
Liner2
ExtendedFbox for blockwork123
DBtp
Cultstoneflash2
Cultstoneflash1
Cultstoneflash before
Cultstone flash 3
Crown and cap install
CB1
Another chimney rebuild/repair. Original brick cleaned and re-used. Chimney rebuilt from the roofline up.
Brick patch in
Chimney Repair Portland Oregon
CS5
Client Testimonials
I highly recommend the Willamette Chimney crew. They were personable, worked hard, and gave an honest assessment of our chimney. Thank you!
We think that Willamette Chimney are the BEST brick masons. Cliff and Doug just finished a repar and the job looks fantastic!
On time, professional.
- What is tuck-pointing?
- Does the chimney need tuck-pointing or does it need to be rebuilt?
- What is chimney flashing?
- Why does my fireplace smoke?
- What do you clean when you do a chimney cleaning?
Tuckpointing is the process of grinding out bad mortar joints and tooling in new mortar into the prepared joint. To see our 9-minute Youtube video showing the process, click this link: Tuck-pointing Procedure
Check out our blog post for an in-depth study on tuck-pointing: Chimney tuckpointing blog post
This decision (tuck-point or rebuild) comes down to a few factors:
- How bad is the condition of the mortar joints, and how deep is the erosion of the joint?
- What is your budget?
I have been called out to a 100-year-old chimney that I could practically push over from the roof and should have been rebuilt. The customer had limited funds, so tuckpointing was better than doing nothing. A week after the mortar had hardened I went back on the roof and pushed on the chimney to see if it would move. It did not! This requires a deep dive, so click here and dive in!
Chimney flashing is the metal pieces you see at the bottom of the chimney where the chimney meets the roof. The purpose of chimney flashing is to keep water from running down the chimney and getting into the house. To see a 1-minute video showing some chimney flashing work our Portland crew performed, click here: Rooftop Chimney flashing video
To take a deeper dive on flashing, take a look at our chimney flashing blog post.
- You have a dirty chimney.
- The chimney is not tall enough.
- The house is surrounded by large trees or is at the bottom of a mountainside, cliffside or the bottom of a valley.
- The damper is not opening all of the way.
- Clogged/dirty rain cap.
- A ceiling fan operating in the room while a fire is burning.
- Lots of foot traffic back and forth in front of the fireplace, combined with lots of door(s) opening and closing frequently.
- The furnace kicks on and pulls air down the chimney.
- The chimney is on an outside wall and is cold at start-up of a fire.
- Improper fire construction.
- You are not using a fireplace grate.
- Atmospheric pressure differences throughout the house.
- A kitchen range hood is on during the burning of the fire.
We clean the chimney flue itself. For an open fireplace, we also clean the smoke chamber above the damper, and the smoke shelf, which is a cavity behind the back wall of the firebox. Click here to learn more.
- To learn how we clean woodstoves, click here.
- To learn how we clean oil furnace chimneys, click here.
- To learn how we clean pellet stoves, click here.