A chimney cap does an unglamorous job that most people ignore until birds are nesting in the flue or rain is rusting the damper, but on a short South Philadelphia stack a cap also has a second job, helping the chimney resist the downdraft that rolls smoke back into the house. SmokeGuard Chimney installs caps sized to the flue, fastened to hold on an exposed rowhome roof, and chosen to keep weather, animals, and embers out without choking the draft. We fit the cap your chimney actually needs and explain why, rather than slapping a one-size cover on the top and calling it done.
- Cap sized to the actual flue, single or multi-flue
- Stainless or copper to match the stack and the budget
- Fastened to hold on a wind-exposed flat roof
- Spark screen to keep embers and animals out
- Sized so it shelters the flue without strangling the draft
- Free look at the crown and stack while we are up there
What an open or wrong cap lets into the house
An uncapped flue is an open hole at the top of your house, and on a South Philadelphia rowhome it invites in exactly the trouble you would expect. Rain pours straight down onto the damper and the smoke shelf, rusting the metal and soaking the masonry from the inside, where freeze-thaw then goes to work. Birds, squirrels, and raccoons treat an open flue as prime real estate, and a nest of debris is both a draft blockage and a fire hazard. Leaves and street grit settle in and choke the flue over time. A cap is the cheapest part on the whole chimney and the one that prevents the widest range of expensive problems.
A wrong cap, though, can be worse than none, and this is where the rowhome detail matters. A cap that is too small or has too fine a screen can throttle the flue and make a marginal draft worse, so the fire that smoked a little now smokes a lot. A flimsy cap on an exposed flat roof simply blows off in the next nor'easter. And a cap with the wrong profile on a wind-swept South Philly stack can act like a scoop, catching gusts and driving them down the flue. Choosing the cap is not an afterthought on these houses, it is part of getting the draft to behave.
Sizing and anchoring a cap that earns its keep
We start by measuring the actual flue, because a cap only works when it matches the opening, and many South Philly stacks carry more than one flue under a single crown, which calls for a multi-flue cap rather than separate covers crowding each other. We fit stainless or copper depending on the stack and your budget, both of which outlast the cheap galvanized covers that rust through in a few winters, and we include a spark screen sized to keep embers and animals out without strangling the draft. Then we anchor the cap to hold, because a rowhome roof is one of the windiest spots in the neighborhood and a cap that is not properly fastened becomes someone's problem two doors down.
While we are up at the top we look over the crown and the upper masonry, since the cap and the crown work together to keep water out of the stack, and a cracked crown undermines even the best cap. If the crown needs sealing or rebuilding, you will hear about it then, with photos, rather than discovering it next spring when the ceiling stains. The cap is a small part that protects an expensive one, and getting it right is one of the highest-value, lowest-cost things you can do for a South Philadelphia chimney.
A small part that protects the whole stack
Of all the chimney work a rowhome can take on, a proper cap is among the best values, precisely because it heads off the slow water damage and the animal intrusions that nobody notices until they are serious. A cap almost always costs a fraction of the crown repair, the liner damage, and the masonry work it prevents, and on a short, wind-exposed South Philly stack it also takes some of the edge off the downdraft that plagues these flues. Good caps are quiet insurance for everything below them.
We will look at your stack, tell you honestly what cap it needs, and put the price in writing before we order a thing. If your current cap is rusted, missing, blown loose, or simply the wrong size for the flue, the fix is usually quick, and it is one of the easiest ways to add years to a chimney and to cut down on the rain, the critters, and the wind that make a fire misbehave. No upsell to copper if stainless is the right call for your chimney and your budget.
The whole chimney, in one place
A chimney is a system, so chimney cap installation rarely stands alone, it connects to fireplace sweep, pre-season chimney inspection, flashing repair, flue relining, chimney masonry repair, and our crew handles all of it under one roof. We bring the same service to South Philadelphia chimney cap installation, Chimney Cap Installation in Passyunk Square, Chimney Cap Installation in Point Breeze, Pennsport chimney cap installation and everywhere else across the Philadelphia area.
If you searched for a local chimney crew near you, you have reached a local crew, call 215-618-4572 any time. For background, read Gas Conversion and the Orphaned Flue Problem in South Philly on our blog, or head back to our Philadelphia home page to see everything we do.