Chimney repair - anyone familiar?

good idea to get a few more estimates.

also make sure the contractor you select is licensed and insured...

Thanks - yes - I am only reaching out to those that are licensed and insured.

I read all the reviews as well - and am looking for a smaller local type company.

I found a couple of others both with just a few employees - I would rather wait a little while and hire a smaller place than a larger company. I don't think the company I used is a bad one, but I suspect they may price a bit higher. Or if all the work they suggest needs to be done, or using more expensive material than is needed. Also on the estimate - they deducted a $90 coupon? Which to me makes me think they are trying to let me know - they are giving me some sort of deal.

It is obvious to me that the chimney needs work - but I worry this is too much (and of course I do not have $5 k in my back pocket).

I recall when we first moved in (in '95) we had the chimney capped and repointed and it was a few thou even then.

Masonry work has gotten expensive. There's a real shortage of masons where I live and they can pretty much name their price.

Called and this other guy is coming over tomorrow to take a look and provide an estimate - so I guess I will see - he seems to be a smaller shop

We had some new caps put on several wooden chimneys at the apartments. It was pretty pricey but a big part of the expense was because they had to custom fashion the caps. No correlation here, except to note that it cost lots of money.

I did a quick search - the cap itself should not be too bad - I saw a range of $200-$500 - assuming we are in the higher range - but I think it is some of the other work - a new liner and some mortar repair - I would guess in the range of $3k maybe a little higher.

But of course that is simply doing a quick search. Over $5 seems high - but I could be wrong - also wondering if all the repairs are necessary or not. I need to call him back to and see because he was supposed to break down for me what was necessary repair and when can wait/nice to have.

we had the same job done to two of our chimnys (its a 270+ year old place) One of the fireplaces serves the gas furnace and was a huge walk -in style cooking fireplace, the other was a chimney that served fireplaces on 2 floors. e paid about 9000$ (it was over 10 yers ago) and the SS lining (18 gage, I think) and the light spun fibreglas mortar was the big cost. They also hadda do some "sculpting" to fit liner with 2 smoke inlets in the big fireplace and had to install a new smoke-shelf and damper s ( I couldnt believe that We lived in this old stone uninsulated house for almost20 years without a damper and had water damage inside so many courses of fire brick hadda be added) and the chimneys also was rebuilt with new "old looking" brick. we also had 2 caps installed and that made huuuuge differences to the draft. Before, when wed burn logs in one of the bedroom fireplaces up stairs (We try to impress guests when they stay over in winter), the smoke sometimes returned down the chimney until the fireplace really heated up. That bedroom always had a slight wood fire smell.

The caps and screens were connected to the lightning rod systems (We also live on top of a big hill with only fields and pastures around.

Id say you were getting a decent price because inflation on material alone was pretty steep in the last 15 years or so.

My only aviv=ce is to check the gage number for th SS liner. The smaller the number the thicker the SS.

If you are concerned with the work (we didnt know squat about what ent into such a job, so e asked the installer for some references and then we asked these references for "by whom" they got referred to this guy and then we visited a coupla those places. It was lotsa fun and we larned a lot about colonial fireplaces Turns out on of the places this guy did was a museum building that was an old farm house that was part of the old Brandywine Battlefield. and the docents there were knowledgeable about the work.