I’m a chimney tech, and when you book chimney repair in Mt. Lebanon, PA, I’m the one who shows up, gets on the roof, and does the masonry with my own hands. Mt. Lebanon went up mostly in the 1920s through the 1940s, back when it grew as a streetcar suburb, so what I climb here is old-stock brick and stone with clay-tile or unlined flues underneath. That masonry has hit the age where crowns break up, joints wash out, and the top of the stack starts letting water in. If yours is dropping brick or staining a ceiling, call me and I’ll get up there and give you the honest read.
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What I See on Mt. Lebanon Chimneys
Because so much of the housing here predates the war, the chimneys share a set of problems I do not run into as often on newer suburban homes. The crowns are frequently thin terra cotta or poured concrete that has cracked and spalled after decades of weather. The mortar is original lime-based joint work that has gone soft and powdery. The flues are old clay tile, and plenty were never lined at all. On top of that, a lot of these homes started on coal, moved to oil, then landed on gas, which leaves an oversized flue that no longer matches whatever is venting into it today. Each one of those is a water problem or a safety problem, and most of the repairs I do in Mt. Lebanon trace straight back to that list.
The Repairs I Do on Mt. Lebanon Chimneys
On these older homes the failures cluster around the same short list. This is the work I am up on a roof doing across the South Hills.
Crown Rebuilds
The crown is the masonry slab that caps the chimney and throws rain clear of the flue and the brick. On Mt. Lebanon chimneys it is often the first thing to go, cracked straight through or spalling apart the way the one in the photos below had. If the crown is still solid, I clean it and seal it. If it has broken up, I form and pour a new one with a real slope and an overhang so water gets thrown off the top instead of soaking down into the stack.
Tuckpointing and Repointing
The old lime mortar in these joints eventually turns soft and washes out, and once it does, water runs right into the chimney. I grind the failed joints back to sound mortar and repack them with a mix matched to your brick and the original joint line. On a pre-war chimney this is the repair that buys you the most time, because it shuts the water off before it wrecks the brick.
Spalling Brick and Stone
Spalling is when the face of a brick or a stone flakes, pops, or crumbles off, and it means water has already been getting in and freezing. I cut out the units that have gone and reset the top courses when they have shifted, matching the brick or stone so the repair blends into the original work instead of standing out as a patch.
Flashing
Flashing is the metal seal where the chimney passes through the roof. When it lifts or was just tarred over, you get a leak that shows up as a stain on a ceiling and usually gets blamed on the roof. I strip the bad flashing and reseal that joint so it sheds water the way it is supposed to.
Chimney Liners and Old Conversions
Inside the flue, an old clay tile liner cracks with age and heat, and an unlined flue was never safe to begin with. Because so many Mt. Lebanon homes were converted from coal to oil and then to gas, the flue is frequently too large or too worn for the appliance on it now, sometimes with a water heater left venting alone into a chimney sized for a coal furnace. I check the liner on every visit and reline it when it is cracked or no longer matched to what you run. You can see how I handle a gas furnace liner if you want the detail.
Caps, Waterproofing, and Smoke Chamber Parging
Once the masonry is right, a chimney cap over each flue keeps rain, animals, and downdrafts out, and a breathable waterproofing sealer on the brick slows the next round of freeze-thaw before it can start. If you want the full case for a cap, I wrote up why chimney caps matter. Inside, the smoke chamber above the firebox is often rough, stepped brick that has lost its parge coat, and I parge it smooth again so the chimney drafts cleanly and keeps heat off the surrounding masonry.
A Brick, Crown, and Cap Rebuild I Did in Mt. Lebanon
The photos here are from a Mt. Lebanon chimney I worked on. The before shot shows what age and weather had done to the top: the crown had cracked and spalled clear across, the top brick courses had darkened and worked loose, and old vine growth had crept into the joints. I took the loose top down and rebuilt the top three courses of brick, formed a fresh crown to shed rain again, and set new caps over the two main flues to keep water and animals out. The after shot is the same chimney with a solid, sealed top.
Repair or Rebuild? How I Tell
Not every rough-looking chimney needs to come down, and on these old Mt. Lebanon stacks I would rather save the original masonry when I can. Up top I am reading how far the damage runs. If the brick below is still sound and it is the crown, the top courses, and the liner that have failed, that is a repair: reset the top, put on a new crown, reline, and you are done. When the mortar has washed out the full height of the stack, the brick is spalling on every face, or the chimney has started to lean off the house, patching it just wastes your money, and I will tell you it needs a partial or full rebuild. You get the straight answer, not the one that pads the invoice.
What a Repair Visit Looks Like
When you call, I come out and actually climb the chimney instead of sizing it up from the driveway. I go over the crown, the brick and the mortar, the flashing at the roofline, and the liner down the flue, then I walk you through what I found and hand you a written estimate for only what the chimney needs. Small repairs I can often handle on the same trip. A full rebuild goes on the schedule, and either way the estimate is free. There is more on how I work on my chimney repair page, and I laid a crown job out step by step in this crown rebuild before-and-after.
Chimney Repair Across Mt. Lebanon and the South Hills
Mt. Lebanon sits right in the middle of the South Hills work I do. Along with Mt. Lebanon itself I cover the neighboring communities of Dormont, Castle Shannon, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, Scott Township, and Pleasant Hills, all of them full of the same era of brick and stone chimneys. If yours needs a look before another winter works on it, give me a call.