Hi guys! I was reading a post about mold and steel beams, and I thought, you guys can figure out anything! So here’s my question:
I have a house built in 1976 with two HUGE cinderblock chimneys. I think they were supposed to be a design statement. The biggest is 20 wide. One is imbedded between the house and attached garage from the ground to the first floor and then has a face to the outside for the 2nd floor of the house. The biggest one has a full face to the outside from the ground up. The problem is, the cement blocks, which are crumbly at the very top of the chimney, soak up water. Water oozes to the outside and pushes off the paint some fool put on them. It oozes to the inside and makes the closets up against them all mildewy. About 5 times a year, a good rainstorm will pour water into the fireplaces (3) and that makes it worse. My solution is Damp-Rid in the closets, but that’s no solution. Any ideas?
Thank you thank you!
zone 6 gardening in the woods with 30,000 deer
Replies
i am a roofer but without seeing it i can only say what i have run across.
First does the chimney have a top???.
Are you in a windy area????
you may need a whirly bird top if its windy.
Concrete or cinder blocks are porous and will soak through.
the fix for this is to plaster them if they are not or its worn through.
The flashing where it meets the roof needs to be inspected
have a mason and a roofer look at it.
be aware a mason may not see what the roofer sees and a roofer may not see what the mason sees
If crumbly it is already past the point and needs to be rebuilt or at least re-toped.
It can be coated with stucco to reduce the amt of water penetrating it, but not 100%
What concerns me is the "crumbly" That sounds like acids from combustion byproduct is eating the masonry. I wonder if this even has a clay flue liner. IF it is block on the inside of the flue too, you have an unsafe chimney and there is no reason to save it. It must be rebuilt.
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good suggestions from these guys. As far as the mildew, after the chimney gets fixed, replace the closet wallboard with a mildew resistant type.
Thanks guys. The chimneys appear to be reasonably well flashed at the roof (I guess it was redone when the new roof went on, 15 years =/-, before we bought it. But when we moved in the chimneys didn't appear to be really attached to the house along the side. There were big gaps and it used to rain inside the closets, all the way down to the basement. The gaps between the edge of the siding/house wall and the chimney were up to 2" and there was no sign of flashing. As a stop gap we filled with magic inflating foam (in the red can) and then caulked the heck of it as well. This did stop the running water, but not the soggy damp. I guess the next thing is to find out how the flues are lined. Wish me luck! And a lottery win because it sounds like I may need it :)
zone 6 gardening in the woods with 30,000 deer
What bobys says. And what arcflash says about the soggy nasty drywall - prepare to expect the insulation inside to be even nastier.
We are all sorry about the cost for this repair...
I've seen some houses in my area with the chimney leaning to the side a bit and a big gap all the way to the ground. If you think that it is a safety issue other than just the mildew, I would even consider dismantling and removing it all together. Its possible that there aren't even footers locking into the ground and that is why it has moved so much. You might be patching the roof and exterior wall where it once stood, but you would never be worrying about it again.
BTW, is the "mildew" white?
There might well be some efflorescence
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One closet has black mold on the ceiling. The other closets don't have any visible fungus but they have a damp smell and the coats and board games have a mildewy smell as well. The cabinet recessed into the chimney near the fireplace that has the stereo in it doesn't have the smell, I think because the heat from the amplifier/TV keeps it warm and dry. The fireplaces themselves have white minerals coming through some of the brick, clearly from the water.The chimneys were stuccoed originally I think, because you can see the decorative swirls, but in the sun you can as clearly see the outlines of the blocks. The tops of the chimneys (no caps to keep stuff out or anything) I think were poured with a form because they have a little shadow-edge detail about 5 inches down. A long time ago we asked a chimney guy for advice and he suggested putting a little shiny aluminum box with screening on top of the chimneys. Ugly as sin and he wanted $500 each I think, so we did nothing.I put "check for clay liners" on my darling husband's list :)
zone 6 gardening in the woods with 30,000 deer
As a quick fix at least until repairs start, put a small dehumidifier on a timer in each affected closet. That should cut down on the smell and help you breathe easier. A moisture meter will even help determine where the water is coming in at. It could even be something totally unrelated, you never know, even though a good assumption is to look where the majority of the mold is. Have you been in the attic yet? The damage may be more severe than you thought, or coming from somewhere you least expected. Post pictures if you can. There are some really smart people on this site that can give you some sound advice. I wish you the best of luck!
Thank you guys for all your help. I will try and get pics. I don't want to post too big so it may take some figuring. The one chimney that seemed to be pulled away from the house a little bit, or settled away, is the one that comes down between the house and the attached garage. That's the one where we filled the gap between the siding and the chimney with foam. In our unfinished attic, there is a lot of water staining, as expected, on the inside of where the gap was. There is a lot of old waterstaining running down the bare cement blocks that show in the garage. There is water staining in the basement below, as well, down behind the furnace that vents to one of the 2 flues in that chimney. I don't think the water runs through there any more, since we filled the gap. I haven't found it actively wet. However, the tiny closet with the black mold does back up to this chimney, in the mud room between the house and garage. This closet used to fill up with water--literally, I hang my pocket book on a hook in there and once I found it full of water with my wallet floating. But there has been no running water around this chimney since we filled the gap. However, there is still water in the fireplace, running down inside the chimney, whenever we get a big rain. And the paint won't stay on the chimney on the outside. So that's why I think the cement gets saturated, causing the mold in that closet.The other chimney never had any actual leaks between itself and the house, like the other one did. It doesn't butt up against any part of the attic, so I can't see there. It also doesn't connect to the basement (we have a partial basement, they blasted the ledge to make what they did). The chimney is actually outside the main foundation of the house, I guess on a poured slab? Can't tell by looking. It has 2 cupboards and 1 large coat closet backing up to it, all three have bad mildew smelling problems, but no mold to see. This fireplace also gets puddles in it on really rainy days, they can be big enough to run out onto the hearth and the living room floor occasionally. The wall over the fireplace downstairs is wood, 1/2" paneling, no signs of water. The wall over the fireplace upstairs is painted sheetrock, also no signs of water. I might think that the huge mass of cold cement causes inside warm moist air to condense, causing the mildew, but that doesn't make sense because the closets are kept closed, without hardly any air transfer, and the interior walls against the chimney don't show any signs of condensation.I know this is long-winded, forgive me!
zone 6 gardening in the woods with 30,000 deer
good news, there are liners in each of the 4 flues. They stand about 2 inches proud of the cement and look like they are made of orange flower-pot clay.
zone 6 gardening in the woods with 30,000 deer