Chimney repair and liners in Newark

Newark was settled in 1666, and much of what stands today was built during its long industrial run. About 24 percent of the city's homes went up before 1940, and many more in the decades after. Newark is a city of two- and three-family houses and apartment buildings more than single homes: only about 13 percent of its housing is detached. In the Ironbound, roughly 60 percent of the real estate market is two- and three-family houses.

In those buildings a chimney rarely serves a fireplace. It carries exhaust from the boilers and water heaters of two or three units, often stacked up one flue. About 68 percent of Newark homes heat with gas. When those appliances are replaced, or a flue starts leaking exhaust and water into the walls, the chimney needs attention. We inspect it for free, photograph what we find and give you a written price.

Multi-family houses and shared flues

When one unit in a two-family house gets a new high-efficiency boiler that vents out the side wall, the old water heater can be left alone in a chimney sized for much more heat. The exhaust cools before it reaches the top, condenses, and soaks the mortar. You see it as white staining on the brick, rust at the cleanout door, or flaking inside the basement. A stainless liner sized for the water heater fixes it, typically $625 to $2,250.

Any furnace, boiler or water heater replacement in New Jersey needs a chimney verification on form F-370 before the job is approved, unless both units are direct-vent, and the owner can't sign it. Landlords often call us when an inspector holds up a permit. We do the check, tell you whether the flue can be used as it is, and send the paperwork.

Forest Hill and Newark's older housing

Forest Hill in the North Ward was built up by wealthy Newarkers between the 1870s and the 1920s, with Victorian, Colonial Revival, Tudor and Spanish Revival houses, and its historic district has been on the National Register since 1990. Houses like these have big masonry chimneys with several flues, and they need crown, flashing and repointing work after a century of weather. Newark's Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission issues certificates of appropriateness for work in designated historic districts and on landmarks, so ask the city before changing a visible chimney.

Weather is less severe here than in the suburbs, with about 80 nights a year at or below freezing at Newark airport against about 108 at Caldwell, according to NOAA. Newark still averages 31.5 inches of snow a year, and every freeze works water deeper into cracked brick.

Where we work in Newark

Ironbound · Forest Hill · Vailsburg · Ivy Hill · Weequahic · Clinton Hill · Roseville · Broadway · Mount Pleasant · University Heights · Fairmount · Dayton