Chimney Repair for Mount Prospect Homes

Chimney repair in brief

Chimney repair covers everything that carries smoke and exhaust out of the house: the brick and mortar, the crown that seals the top, the cap or chase cover, the flashing where the chimney meets the roof, and the flue inside. We start by finding the cause, whether that's a cracked crown, an open joint, a gap in the flashing or a damaged liner. Then we repair the cause instead of patching the symptom. Scope, process and the kinds of damage we handle are covered in detail on our chimney repair service page.

What Mount Prospect's housing data and Village rules mean for your chimney

Most homes went up in the mid-century decades

In Mount Prospect, 3.3% of housing units were built before 1940 and 48.2% between 1940 and 1969. The median year built is 1969 (CMAP Community Data Snapshot, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates). That puts about half of the village's homes in that 30-year span. On any masonry chimney with that many heating seasons behind it, the mortar joints, the crown and the flashing are usually the parts that wear first, so that's where we look first.

Where the chimney meets the roof

Mount Prospect's Residential Roof Supplement (Village of Mount Prospect Community Development Department, 2026) requires sidewall and masonry flashings to be metal or lead. Existing flashing may be reused, but all flashing must be weather tight. That is the responsibility of the roofing contractor or of a homeowner who replaces their own roof.

If you're planning a new roof, find out whether the chimney flashing will be reused, and have its condition checked before the new roofing goes on. If water shows up around the chimney between roof jobs, the cause is often the flashing or the masonry above it. We repair or reseal flashing and fix the brick and mortar it's set into as part of chimney repair.

Chimneys that vent a furnace, boiler or water heater

Mount Prospect's Guide to Rental Property Maintenance Inspection (Village of Mount Prospect Community Development Department) requires gas-burning water heaters, boilers and furnaces to vent to an approved chimney or vent. It also requires vents and flues to be secure, properly sized and pitched. That standard is written for rental property, but the point holds for any house: if a gas appliance vents into the chimney, the flue's condition matters even when the fireplace is never lit. We repair and install chimney liners, and gas fireplace and gas appliance work is offered.

Rental buildings and the village's masonry standard

The same guide is used in the Village's annual inspections of apartment buildings. It requires chimneys to be straight, structurally sound and free of loose, spalled or cracked masonry, with open joints tuckpointed. Those are masonry repairs we do: replacing spalled or cracked brick, tuckpointing open joints, repairing crowns and rebuilding a chimney section that has started to lean. Commercial and property-manager work is offered, so building owners can have that work done before or after an inspection.

When repair is the right job, and when something else fits better

• Rust stains, water dripping inside a prefab chimney, or a missing top: the fix may be a cap or a chase cover. Our guide to chimney cap vs chase cover explains which one your chimney uses and why it matters.
• You can see something is wrong but not where it starts: an inspection, including a camera look inside the flue, can come before any repair.
• Smoke, odor or heavy buildup inside the flue with sound masonry: cleaning and creosote removal fit better than repair.
• Adding a fireplace rather than fixing one: fireplace installation in Mount Prospect covers new fireplaces and inserts.

Booking a repair

If you want to read more before you call, how chimney repair works walks through the process. You can also browse everything we do in Mount Prospect, from cleaning and inspections to dryer vents.