Richard T. Kreh Sr.

Q: The stones on my flagstone patio are fastened securely, and the concrete base seems to be in good condition. However, the mortar between the stones has chipped out due…

Q: I just bought a house from the 1820s, and I have to repoint the chimney. Which mortar will work with the existing mortar in the chimney? Dave Ericson, Newtown,…

Q: I’m repointing a single-flue brick chimney on the gable end of a roof. When I was just about at the top, I realized that the chimney had not been…

Q: The engineers at our office have an ongoing debate about what causes the horizontal crack commonly found around the tops of brick masonry chimneys. Some argue that it’s related to…

Q: Some clients of mine are having severe downdraft (smoking) problems with fireplaces in a house I designed for them recently. The fireplaces are Rumford style, built from components and…

Q: I’m building a house that will have a furnace and two fireplaces, each with separate flues and all sharing the same chimney. The fireplace flues will each be 16 in.…

Q: The fireplace in Richard T. Kreh Sr.’s article Building an Efficient Fireplace has a smoke shelf, but it also has an interior chimney. As I understand it, the smoke shelf…

A variation of the Rumford design reflects heat into the room rather than letting it disappear up the chimney.

Q: I want to replace the galvanized flue on my furnace with a brick chimney. The flue now sits over the garage floor. It is about 27 ft. high and is…

Q: I need to repair the tops of the two chimneys on my house. The main flue of one chimney is no longer used because we have replaced our furnace with…