hi all, just a quick question. I have a 14″ (diameter) round metal bestos chimney and would like to put a cap on it…. reason being is, when I had the roof done, they built a box to simulate a standard chimney and attached the faux vinyl brick to that…. but, now I have a round chimney inside a square box…. and the birds up here have started to nest inside of it…. my wife says not a problem, but I can’t imagine that it’s good for snow and rain, OR the birds to be getting inside of there…… I’ve looked at the caps at lowe’s and HD, but none really fit… they made the box surround kinda big, mainly to accomodate the faux brick facing….. so, I guess, getting to the point, any ideas on how I can cap it to prevent “nature” from getting in, in all its forms????
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There are companies that make chimney caps. I'd just get one of them to fix it.
are they sold at home depot or lowes?? I've checked, but am I missing something??
No. Chimney repairs, caps in the yellow pages should be a start. Box stores sell some caps, but only common ones. You need a custom one made. They aren't cheap, but I could tell you of horror stories from vermin damage.
let's here it mark, I like horror stories... what I hear is, "there just birds", you know women, love 'em to death, but they need to be convinced sometimes ;-)
any suggestions on making one custom myself?? I am kind of the type of guy that likes to save on those labor charges if I think I can do it myself.... always research and don't like shortcuts, I like to do it right, as the contractor would do..... it just takes me twice as long....
what about the fact that the weather (snow & rain in particular) getting in there, the chimney is 14" round and if I remember the box is maybe 20" x 20"... or something close to that..... I know they put ice and water shield over the new sheathing right around the chimney...then flashed it, but that was probably just up against the box... so, that means I potentially have upwards of 6" around the circular chimney where now that I think about it could be collecting snow or getting rained on.... where does this go when the sun beats on it and melts.... does it go between the shingles and the roof paper???
damn if it isn't always something.....
I would use Stainless steel for the cap and the top flashing. The factory ones have a heavy stainless "screen" to keep the critters out, and its all welded together.
If you're up to it, I'd make a piece that would cover the top of the box and have the opening for the round pipe sealed to to that. Then put a top cap with something like 6" tall screening around the perimeter. You may be able to find some SS screening fairly easily, and use 1/4 inch openings. You cold probably use SS hardware to screw it together.
I dont have a clue how water is getting out of the box, but it's not watertight at the bottom. It's going somewhere.
A friend had a family of racoons living in the chimney. They knew they were in there, so they didn't use the fireplace. After a while everyone got fleas from the racoons, they were all bit up. Ever try to rid a house of fleas? Not easy.
So Jim has this idea that he will take a piece of wood to fit the chimney, and he keeps screwing little pieces of 1x3 together with drywall screws to prop it up the chimney and shoves the complete family out, then he takes his gizmo apart, and goes outside.
As he gets the ladder, he sees the family run back into the chimney. Says something loke Dohh, but not exactly. That's where I wish I had a camera.
Does the same routine again except this time leaves the prop in the fireplace. Gets his new chimney cap and goes up. Racoon is still in the chimney at the top. Jim thinks chimney is empty. Big mistake. Carries cap to chimney and has a little stepladder to get to the top. Climbs up and finds a hostile racoon that wants to take his face off, like right now.
Ends up falling off roof. No real major damage since it was a ranch, but he's not too good.
He was thinking of smoking them out, but thought that was a stupid idea. So he shook his gizmo after dark one night and went up with a flashlight and mirror to verify they were out and put the cap on then.
Feeling good jim went to bed. Gets up and finds the cap was pulled off. Racoons back.
He did the same trick again and really attached the cap good. All is well now.
A neighbor had 5 incinerated squirrels in her water heater flu. She kept smelling gas fumes in the house. She could have gotten CO poisioning from that.
Birds can be inquisitive (stupid?) little buggers. Before I had a chimney cap, one time my attention was drawn to the basement furnace by a scuffling sound. Sure enough there was a bird in the combustion chamber. This was heating season and it surely would have made a horrid stink had the burner fired before I released it. I suspect the bird was enjoying the warmth from the chimney before being overcome by CO and toppling into the flue. Then it walked about 15' through the horizontal in-slab flue, emerging in the combustion chamber.
Also had a bird fall down a vent stack, as evidenced by a scuffling sound in the basement DWV. I opted not to cut it out, choosing to leave it forever entombed.
Cleaned out the dryer duct a couple of weeks ago and found the remains of another bird.
I've had good luck w/ this site. Their product comes w/ Tapcons and a tube of caulk they recomend for use on chimneys. Good luck to you.
http://www.northlineexpress.com/chimney-caps
find out what the mfr's name is ( MetalBestos... Hart&Cooley...etc)
they make a cap for that chimey.. then go on line and find out who their distributors are.. there is probably a sheet metal supply house that distributes that chimney
alright, thanks everyone, all great advice, I appreciate it....