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Sweeping, inspection and repair in Longmont, the St. Vrain Creek city with Longs Peak in view.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain
Choose a part to see what we examine on it, and how freezing nights, heavy snow and dry air treat it on this side of the Front Range.
Start up on the roof
1At the very top
Rain, snow and wandering sparrows all meet the cap first. Its mesh holds embers in and animals out, and the lid above it turns the weather aside.
We check: a lid dented by hail, mesh coming loose, rust at the lid edges or the joins.
Next: Crown
2Below the cap
Cracks start small here. A seam in the slab takes in thaw water in the afternoon and holds it until the freeze pushes the gap wider. In a normal Longmont January the low is 14.4°F and the high 44.5°F, so that cycle gets plenty of chances.
We check: fine cracks, crumbling edges, a gap at the slab's rim beside the flue.
Next: Flashing
3Around the base
Where the stack comes up through the roof, a metal collar and a bead of sealant keep the weather out. Snow piles on the uphill side and drains slowly, so any edge that has curled up lets the water run in behind the brick.
We check: a curled or lifted edge, sealant that has hardened and split, rust trails, a damp stain on a ceiling near the stack.
Next: Flue liner
4Within the brick
Smoke and gas travel up the liner, hidden inside the brick. Longmont's median house dates from 1991, which puts a typical flue past thirty years: time enough for a tile to slip or a pipe seam to rust, and neither can be seen from where you sit.
We check: pipe seams that have rusted or opened, tiles that are cracked or out of line, a liner that is wrong for the appliance it serves.
Next: Smoke chamber
5Between flue and firebox
The smoke shelf over the damper catches the first soot and creosote. A fireplace used a few evenings a month collects slowly while a daily stove collects fast, yet both collect, and a damper stuck partly open lets heated air escape all winter.
We check: tar-like or glossy deposits, a damper that closes all the way, a shelf that crumbles or slopes.
Next: Firebox
6At the hearth
The fire sits right against the firebox walls. Over the years, heating and cooling crack the firebrick and loosen the joints between the bricks, and a narrow gap is easy to fill before the heat finds the framing behind it.
We check: joints with open mortar, firebrick that is cracked or flaking, a hearth that is level and solid.
See all six
We begin high on the stack and end at the hearth, covering each part in order.
(970) 610-0859Or request a visit onlineBrushes loosen the sooty coat inside the flue and on the smoke shelf, and the firebox is cleared out afterward. A flue kept clean pulls better and gives a spark less to catch on.
Every part from the cap to the firebox gets a careful look: once a year, after a chimney fire or a storm, and once more when a home changes hands, a case NFPA 211 ties to a Level 2.
We mend crowns, caps, flashing, mortar and firebrick. A small fault dealt with in the fall stays a smaller job than the same fault after a winter of freezing nights.
Meant for fireplaces and stoves used only occasionally: ash and soot cleared from the firebox and the shelf, the stove pipe brushed, and the damper moved through its whole travel.
Three things the sky brings to the Front Range, and why small faults are best fixed early.
01 / 03
The 1991 to 2020 normal for January in Longmont is a low of 14.4°F and a high of 44.5°F, a spread of about 30 degrees. The low falls to 32°F or under on 30.6 January days in an average year, and on 177.7 days across all twelve months, so a crack in the crown fills with melt water in the afternoon and can be frozen again by morning.
Source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals 1991 to 2020, station Longmont 2 ESE
Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Public domain
Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Public domain
02 / 03
In the storm of March 13 to 14, 2021, NWS Boulder logged 25.5 inches of snow 3 miles north-northeast of Longmont and 24.9 inches 2 miles northeast of town. Snow fell at 2 to 3 inches an hour, strong upslope winds brought blizzard conditions along the Front Range, and gusts of 40 to 50 mph were common along the I-25 corridor. Wind and drifts reach the high points of a roof first, and on a chimney those are the cap and the crown.
Source: NWS Boulder, March 13 to 14, 2021 blizzard summary and storm reports
Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Public domain
Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Public domain
03 / 03
December is Longmont's driest month: its 1991 to 2020 normal is 0.46 inch, and January and February bring only 0.56 and 0.57. The whole year adds up to 15.21 inches. With so little moisture on the ground, a spark that escapes the flue can find dry grass or old shingles, which is why a cap with mesh openings of 1/2 inch at most matters, as the model residential code provides.
Source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals 1991 to 2020, station Longmont 2 ESE; IRC R1003.9.2
Photo: Jeremy Thomas, CC0
Photo: Jeremy Thomas, CC0
Ten photos from our Google Business Profile.
Every tag jumps to that part in the walkthrough above.
We are based in Longmont, a city of the St. Vrain valley named for Longs Peak, which stands in plain view from town. It began in 1871 as the Chicago-Colorado Colony. The map traces today's outline and a few places inside it: in the northwest, west of the center, in the middle, in the south, in the northeast, out east, and in the southeast.
Not sure your street is in our area? Call (970) 610-0859 and we will say.
Relief: AWS Terrain Tiles. City limits: Census Bureau TIGERweb. Place names and positions: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Photo: Jeremy Thomas, CC0
Direct answers, with the source named wherever a figure comes from one.
Burning habits matter more than the date. NFPA 211 recommends a chimney inspection each year, and what that visit finds decides whether a sweep is due. In the Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 estimates, 68 of Longmont's 42,155 occupied homes rely mainly on wood (margin of error 49) and roughly three in four on utility gas, so most fireplaces here serve an occasional cold evening.
Source: NFPA 211; Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
Yes, and NFPA 211 says why: a sale or transfer is one of the times for a Level 2, which goes beyond a Level 1 by adding the attic, the crawl space and a camera sent up the flue. Longmont's homes are a mix. The Census Bureau counts about 8,400 of 43,528 as built in the 1970s, the biggest decade, and about 37 percent before 1980, so chimneys on a single street can differ in age, material and wear.
Source: NFPA 211; Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
Odors cling to soot and creosote. When the air is muggy or warm the flue draws weakly, and sometimes the draft runs backward so the smell drifts indoors. Clearing the deposits removes its source; a damper that seals and a cap overhead contain what is left.
The crown is the slab that finishes the top of a masonry chimney, directing water off the brick and the flue. With a January low of 14.4°F and a high of 44.5°F as the Longmont norm, water that enters a crack can freeze overnight and widen it.
Source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals 1991 to 2020, Longmont 2 ESE station
In almost every case, yes. The cap shuts out rain, snow, birds and animals, and its mesh keeps sparks in. The model code (IRC R1003.9.2) puts a 1/2 inch ceiling on the mesh openings. Which rules apply in Longmont depends on the codes the city has adopted, and the city can confirm them.
Source: IRC model code, section R1003.9.2
We are based in Longmont. If you cannot tell whether your address is covered, be it near McIntosh Lake, out toward Union Reservoir or somewhere else in town, phone (970) 610-0859 and we will let you know.
Phone (970) 610-0859 (Monday through Sunday, 7 AM to 9 PM). The form below takes requests round the clock, and someone phones you back to agree on a time.
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Photo: Longmont star trails, Jeremy Thomas, CC0
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