The chimney is one of the most ignored parts of a home. It neither gets the attention nor the concern which it deserves. Maximum homeowners avoid hiring professional chimney sweep for chimney and fireplace maintenance. As a result, chimney starts deteriorating and creating hazardous conditions.

Chimney care and maintenance

The fact that even neglected chimneys may work well, but what when harsh outdoor elements try to wreck it? Deterioration is a potential safety hazard. The outdoor elements can damage the chimney linings, create flue obstructions, loose mortar joints, break chimney brickwork and cause a significant amount of damage to chimney crown. Regular care and maintenance is required to prevent damages. Chimney deterioration can even collapse your chimney.

Causes of chimney deterioration

There can be multiple reasons behind the chimney deterioration. Some of them are listed below:

Damaged chimney crown

One of the major reasons behind the chimney deterioration is damaged chimney crown. The role of chimney crown is to create a hurdle so that anything cannot enter inside the chimney. Now if crown of your chimney is damaged, it will permit dust, dirt, snow, water, birds, insects and animals to enter inside the chimney. All these things increase the moisture inside the chimney and sooner rather than later start damaging the various components of chimney.

Already existing chimney cracks

If your chimney has loose brick and mortar joints, then get it repaired right away. The cracks present on the outer body of your chimney are not going to get fixed automatically with time. In fact, if you avoid chimney cracks, they will aggravate with time and demand expensive repair later.

Water Penetration

Water can badly damage the structural elements of your chimney. It is not easy to avoid the snow and rain penetration. When water enters inside the brick and mortar of the chimney, it contracts them during cold season and expands them during warm season. This contraction and expansion damage the chimney. It is possible to minimize the water damage via chimney waterproofing.

So, these are the major causes of chimney deterioration. In order to save your chimney, you should immediately consider hiring a certified chimney sweeper.