How the Freezing and Thawing Cycle Can Affect Your Chimney

The freeze/thaw cycle can cause significant damage to the bricks and the mortar of your chimney. Indiana weather can be all over the place sometimes, and although those surprise warm and sunny days we get in the middle of February are nice, did you ever stop to think what that nice, warm weather is doing to your chimney?

What is the Freeze/Thaw Cycle?

When you can see the snow melting off trees and hear the dripping of water off your roof, the precipitation gets into the porous surface of your mortar or even into the surface of bricks, then pools in the pores and stays there. When the weather freezes, that water freezes as well, and when water freezes, it expands which causes those pores to get bigger. When the weather warms up, the ice thaws, and there is room for even more water to collect. As this cycle continues, the pores get bigger and bigger, and this can cause major structural damage to your chimney, and proper maintenance is highly recommended.

Left unrepaired, the cracks of crumbling mortar, water-stained walls, rusted chimney damper or cracked chimney crowns, can lead to more costly damage to your chimney and home. Water can penetrate your chimney’s interior or even compromise other aspects of your home’s structure. Knowing this, the best way to handle chimney damage is to recognize it quickly and have it repaired immediately by a professional chimney company certified by the Chimney Safety Institute of America. This will highly increase your changes of preventing further deterioration.

If you are wondering how the freeze/thaw cycle has affected your chimney give us a call or visit our website us to schedule a visit from one of our Outfitters! Our CSIA-certified chimney technicians will apply a waterproofing formula to your entire chimney that creates a barrier against water penetration so that the freeze/thaw cycle will not occur.