The cap is the small piece at the very top of the chimney that does a job out of all proportion to its size, and a chimney missing one, or wearing a rusted cap that no longer seals, is an open door for everything a North Side year can throw at it. RedLeaf Chimney Crew installs and replaces chimney caps across Chicago's North Side, IL, sized to your actual flue, built to take lake-effect wind and a deep Cook County winter, and fitted with the spark screen and mesh that keep embers in and animals out. We treat the cap as a working part of the chimney system, because in a climate of heavy snow, wind-driven rain, and busy wildlife, that is exactly what it is.
- Cap sized to the actual flue, never a guess
- Stainless or other weather-rated material built to last
- Spark screen and animal mesh fitted
- Multi-flue caps for shared stacks where they are needed
- Anchored against lake-effect wind and winter snow load
- Free assessment and a straight written estimate
What an open flue quietly lets in
An uncapped flue is an open pipe aimed at the North Side sky, and whatever falls out of that sky goes straight down it. Rain and snowmelt pour onto the smoke shelf and the damper, rusting the metal and soaking the masonry from inside, where the wet speeds up the very deterioration the rest of the chimney is already fighting. Over a few winters that water cracks liner tiles, corrodes the damper until it no longer seals, and feeds the freeze-and-thaw damage that crumbles the masonry from within. A cap is a small piece of metal, and the absence of one is among the most common reasons a chimney that looks fine from the street is quietly falling apart inside.
Water is not the only thing an open flue welcomes. Squirrels, raccoons, birds, and other animals treat an uncapped chimney as a ready-made den, and a nest jammed into the flue is at once a draft blockage and a fire hazard, on top of the obvious headache of an animal stuck in your chimney. Downdrafts are another problem an open or badly fitted flue invites, shoving cold air and sometimes smoke back down into the house. A good cap shuts all of that down at once, which is what makes it one of the highest-value, lowest-cost pieces of the chimney to get right.
Setting a cap that genuinely fits the stack
A cap only earns its keep if it is sized and anchored correctly, and a generic cap shoved onto the wrong flue is barely an improvement on no cap at all. We measure the actual flue and the chimney top, then fit a cap matched to it, in stainless or another weather-rated material chosen to outlast a string of North Side winters rather than rust out in two. On the many homes up here with more than one flue sharing a single stack, a furnace flue beside a fireplace flue is a common sight, we fit a multi-flue cap built to cover the whole top properly instead of leaving a flue exposed. The spark screen keeps embers off the roof and the mesh keeps animals out, and both are sized so they do not strangle the draft.
Holding the cap in place matters as much as choosing it, because Chicago wind, and the lake-effect gusts that ride in off the water, will work a poorly anchored cap loose over a winter. We fasten the cap so it stays put through the wind and the snow load, and we make sure it sits high enough and clear enough to help the draft rather than choke it. A cap done right is one you fit once and never think about again, which is the whole idea. We will look over your chimney top, tell you honestly whether your existing cap can be re-anchored or genuinely needs replacing, and put the price in writing either way.
A small fix that guards the entire chimney
Of all the work a chimney can need, a cap is among the best returns, precisely because it heads off the slow, expensive damage an open flue causes out of sight. A cap almost always costs a fraction of the liner repair, masonry work, and animal removal it prevents, and on a North Side chimney it also puts an end to the downdrafts and the water intrusion that make a fireplace unpleasant or unsafe to use. A good cap is quiet insurance for everything below it, the liner, the damper, the smoke chamber, and the brick.
We will look at your chimney top at no charge and tell you exactly what it needs, whether that is a new single cap, a multi-flue cap for a shared stack, or simply re-anchoring a sound cap that has worked loose, with an honest estimate in writing. If your flue is open to the sky, your existing cap is rusted through, or you are hearing wildlife or fighting downdrafts, the fix is usually straightforward, and it is one of the easiest ways to add years to the life of the whole chimney.
Every part of the stack, from the hearth to the chimney top
A chimney is a system, so chimney cap installation rarely stands alone, it connects to chimney sweep, chimney inspection, flashing repair, stainless liner installation, masonry restoration, and our crew handles all of it under one roof. We bring the same service to Chimney Cap Installation in Lincoln Park, Chimney Cap Installation in Lakeview, Logan Square chimney cap installation, Chimney Cap Installation in Irving Park and everywhere else across the Chicago area.
If you searched for a local chimney crew near you, you have reached a local crew, call 447-212-3361 any time. For background, read Chimney Crown vs. Cap: Two Different Parts North Side Homeowners Confuse on our blog, or head back to our Chicago home page to see everything we do.