Expert: James Ball - 6/11/2011

Question
My brick chimney (35years old) is 8.5 ft in length and 2.5 feet in width and is situated at the peak of my roof. Recently with rains we have had a leak on the interior of our house where the chimney brick touches the ceiling on the south side of the chimney. We have had masons and roofers come and look and have heard everything from "I don't know what is the cause" to the crown needs to be replaced, the whole chimney needs to be re-built, the flashing is the culprit. The crown does have cracks and is without an overhang. The bricks do have moss growing at several spots. With water testing it seems to only be the flashing leaking. Not sure what professional to believe and what to fix. Would hate to pay for the flashing only to have it still leak. Any thoughts?

Answer
Nicole,if some one has run water (starting low and moving higher  a little at a time) and it leaked at the flashing then you fix the flashing, this is where it sounds like it came from, and if the crown is cracked then that too should be replaced as it will only get worse over time and a bigger repair bill.
hope this helped
James