I have a chimney on my roof that seems to be allowing rain water in. These are flat roofed row houses. This is my neighbors chimney and part of to the party wall. My roof is 3 year old rubber roof. I don’t believe it’s the cause of the problem. The only thing left is the chimney. When it rains a lot, as it’s been doing here in Boston for the last week, water manages to seep in thru the brick chimney into the party wall and stain my ceiling next to the party wall. Is there some kind if coating that I can plaster or paint on this chimney to seal it. It doesn’t matter what it looks like since no one will see it. Most of it’s flues have been blocked off but there is still one flue attached to a rarely used fireplace. So what ever I use cannot be flammable.
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it is alittle hard for me to concieve of all the liabilities and legalities with a situation like this and how his chimney can be in your roof, but that may be ';cause I'm not a city boy. Must be one of those very old boston structures.
Anyway, if you are confident of the rubber roof and the flashing that ties it to the chimney - (flashings are the first suspect usually) then you can buy a bag of Thorocrete and mix up a slurry to paint onto the masonry sides and top. After that cures, caulk around the flue with the GE high temp siliocone or the Velcum caulk. Geocel would work too. Then there are liquid masonry sealers with silicone that you finish it all off with.
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it is alittle hard for me to concieve of all the liabilities and legalities with a situation like this and how his chimney can be in your roof, but that may be ';cause I'm not a city boy. Must be one of those very old boston structures.
I'm not looking to sue my neighbor and make some lawyer a lot of money. I have a very good relationship with that neighbor.
There is a 12" thick brick wall separating our houses. One side of her chimney is part of that wall. It's a 150 year old town house. Their is no flue liner. I've convinced her not to use that fire place but she didn't want to just cap it off. With this leak she might just allow me to do that. I went up on the roof and covered over the entire chimney with a piece of plastic and the leaking has stopped. So I guess the chimney is the problem.
I'd also like to thank everyone for their help.
i will also assume that a chimnney in beantown is going to be pretty dirty so wash it down with a mix of TSP first.
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Before parging it, try (i) getting it dry and (ii) sealing it with a masonry sealer -- not a wood deck sealer.
Brick is porous, old brick can be very porous, with the rain you folks have been getting, think of that chimney as a somewhat slow and dumb sponge.
Water will saturate the brick, trickle down between the brick and flues, and follow any convenient paths back out.
Check the top. I wouldn't be surprised if there are cracks around the outside of the flue opening where water can get in between the flue and the brickwork.
Also, if your rubber roof is directly adjacent to the chimney then the rubber should curb up the side of the chimney several inches so that standing water doesn't try to soak into the chimney.
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