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A leaning chimney is one of the few home problems that is exactly as serious as it looks. Masonry does not tilt for cosmetic reasons. Something underneath it has moved, or something inside it has deteriorated, and the structure is now carrying its weight along a line...

The complaint arrives every July. Nobody has lit a fire since February, the fireplace has been sitting cold for months, and the living room smells like a wet campfire. A chimney smell that appears in summer and disappears in winter seems backwards, but it follows a...

A chimney can look perfectly solid from the ground and still be quietly failing. The bricks hold their shape, the structure stands upright, and nothing looks obviously wrong until water finds its way in, a joint crumbles under pressure, or a mason gets up on the roof...

A stuck or corroded chimney damper can raise your heating bills by hundreds of dollars a year. Most homeowners never think about this small metal component until something goes wrong, and by then, cold air is pouring into the living room, or worse, smoke is backing up...

Most homeowners notice the damage after the water is already inside. A rust-colored stain on the ceiling near the fireplace, a damp smell in the attic after a thaw, or deteriorating drywall on an interior wall. By that point, the flashing has probably been failing...

Buffalo averages over 90 inches of snow annually, and that number does not account for the freeze-thaw cycles, ice storms, and lake-effect punishment that hit chimneys harder than almost any other part of a home. Most homeowners think about roofing, gutters, and...

A failing chimney liner doesn't announce itself. It just quietly creates conditions for a house fire, carbon monoxide exposure, or accelerating structural damage — until someone finally looks inside and finds the problem. For homeowners in Buffalo and the surrounding...

Most homeowners think a chimney inspection is a chimney inspection. A professional comes out, looks things over, and either gives you the green light or hands you a repair estimate. Simple enough, right? Not quite. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 211),...

A single winter in Buffalo can do more damage to a chimney than five years of normal use. That's not an exaggeration. When temperatures swing repeatedly above and below freezing, brick masonry becomes one of the most vulnerable structures on your home. Most homeowners...

You light a fire, settle in, and within minutes the room fills with smoke. The fireplace is doing the opposite of what it should. It's a frustrating problem, and a surprisingly common one — but it's rarely random. Smoke coming back into the house from a fireplace...