Expert: James Ball - 11/2/2008

Question
I am concerned about my chimney!  I cut a hole to inspect the attic, and
install some insulation and possibly some wiring.  Anyways, I cut a hole near
the chimney, and red dust (I mean alot of dust - several 5 gallon buckets
came tumbling down on me...

A whole corner is missing probably somewhere like 30 bricks or more.
I do not know how the thing is standing?  Seems to me to be structuraly
comprosmised, How does one fix it?  Can I just mortar in new brick, and
would that be sufficient?

Janssen

Answer
Hello Jannssen, I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have.
It seems that you have water coming in some where either from out side or from inside, are you heating with natural gas? this is very common with natural gas.
the sweep or mason can help you get this rebuilt, it will have to be torn down to solid brick and mortar before it can be rebuilt
Keep me posted
James Ball