Took me 4 hours to figure out a chimney cap that should have taken 45 minutes

I was up on a roof in the old part of town last Tuesday, trying to install a new stainless steel chimney cap on a 1920s house. The flue tiles were uneven, like they'd settled over the years and nothing was square. I figured I'd just measure it, cut the tabs, and pop it on like always. Three different sizes of caps later, none of them sat right because the tiles had a weird offset I didn't catch from the ground. I ended up having to fabricate a custom bracket on site with some spare angle iron and a drill, plus mess with the tension bands three times before it stopped wobbling. By the time I finally got it sealed with high-temp silicone and the storm collar on, the sun was going down and my knees were shot. It was one of those jobs where you feel like a rookie even though you've been doing this 15 years. Has anyone else dealt with old flues that just refuse to line up with standard caps?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron_perry1mo ago

Have you checked if the flue liner is actually sloped inside the chimney? Sometimes the whole assembly is pitched toward the roof for drainage, and nobody notices until they try to set something flat on top.

shane_park921mo ago

Ugh yeah I used to just slap em on but this totally changed my mind about old houses.

angelaw781mo ago

Man I used to think those old houses were just built better and everything would be easier but this totally changed my mind. Turns out "built different" means nothing is level or square, and you gotta fight every single piece of metal to make it fit. Good reminder that there's always more to learn even after 15 years in the game.