If you live in New Kensington, your house probably has some age on it — and so does your chimney. This stretch of the Alle-Kiski Valley filled in during the aluminum boom, back when Alcoa was running full tilt and brick homes went up street after street above the Allegheny River. Those are good, solid houses. But the chimneys on them are eighty, ninety, sometimes a hundred years old, and the parts that take the beating — the crown, the mortar joints, the clay liner — wear out long before the house does. That’s where I come in. I do chimney repair in New Kensington and across the Valley, and most of what I see comes down to one thing: water that’s been getting in for years.
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A Chimney I Just Rebuilt in New Kensington
The photos on this page are from a recent job right here in town. The top of this chimney had let go — you can see it in the “before” shot. Bricks had worked loose, a whole corner was crumbling apart, and pieces were sitting on the roof. The old crown was long gone, so every rain had a clear path straight into the masonry. Once water gets in like that, our winters do the rest: it soaks in, freezes overnight, expands, and pries the brick and mortar apart a little more with every cold snap.
We took the top down to solid, sound brick, then reset and replaced the brick that had spalled or shifted so the courses sat tight and plumb again. After that I floated a new crown — sloped, with an overhang to throw water clear of the brick instead of letting it run down the face — and set a fresh stainless cap on the liner to keep rain and animals out. Same chimney, just no longer falling apart.
Why Chimneys Around Here Need Work
New Kensington, Arnold, Lower Burrell, Plum — the housing stock is older, and the chimneys were built with materials that have a shelf life. Clay flue liners crack. Crowns were often poured thin and flat with no slope, so they hold water instead of shedding it. Mortar joints that held up for decades start washing out and crumbling. Add the damp coming off the river and a hard Western PA winter, and a small problem turns into a real one fast. The good news: most chimneys I look at don’t need to be torn down. They need the right repair before the water wins.
What I Fix on New Kensington Chimneys
I handle the masonry side of chimney work from start to finish:
- Crown repair and rebuilds — sealing a sound crown that’s just cracked, or pouring a new one when it’s too far gone, like the job above. I broke down how a crown coating actually works in a real before-and-after on a crown repair if you want the details.
- Tuckpointing and repointing — grinding out the failed mortar joints and packing in fresh mortar that matches your brick, so water stops finding its way in.
- Brick and masonry repair — replacing spalled or fallen brick and rebuilding the top courses when they’ve come apart, the way they had on this job.
- Liner work — if a clay liner is cracked or the flue isn’t safe, we sort out relining so the chimney vents the way it should.
- Caps and waterproofing — a solid stainless cap keeps water and critters out of the flue, and sealing the crown and brick keeps the next round of freeze-thaw from starting the damage all over.
Whatever your chimney needs, it’s the same approach every time: I get up top, look at it honestly, and tell you straight what it actually requires — not whatever runs up the biggest bill. You can see the full rundown on my chimney repair service page. And right across the Tarentum Bridge, I do the same work in Brackenridge and the rest of the Allegheny Valley.
If your chimney is dropping brick, staining a ceiling, or you just haven’t had it looked at in years, get it checked before another winter sets in. I serve New Kensington, Arnold, Lower Burrell, Plum, and the rest of the Alle-Kiski Valley, and estimates are always free.