Save Money With A Chimney Cap To Protect Your Flue & Home

How a Chimney Cap Installation Can Save You Money

Have you ever had to call pest control to remove a critter from your chimney? Or been concerned about wet spots in your fireplace? These common chimney-related problems are solved by adding a chimney cap. This smartly designed metal component keeps out moisture, animals, and debris. A chimney cap installation is an inexpensive home improvement project that can protect your home and prevent costly future repairs.

chimney cap installation, Oconomowoc wiA chimney cap is a metal component with slanted, solid sheeting on the top for precipitation to slide off. It also has mesh around the sides to keep in sparks and keep out animals, leaves, and other potential obstructions.

Chimney caps are available in a range of sizes since chimney dimensions vary. Before purchasing one, it is crucial to have your chimney and flue measured to ensure you choose a cap that fits correctly. Many chimney leaks are caused by a wrong-sized or incorrectly installed chimney cap. That’s why we recommend working with a professional chimney technician certified by the National Chimney Institute (NFI). We stake our reputation on ensuring our customers’ chimney caps are the correct size and expertly installed.

Four Key Benefits of a Chimney Cap

There are four ways that a chimney cap can save you money and protect your home.

Protects Against Fire Hazards

Having a chimney cap installed is a simple way to reduce the risk that lighting up your fireplace will lead to a deadly accident. There are two critical ways that the metal mesh around the sides of a chimney cap prevents fire hazards:

  • It acts as a spark guard preventing live embers in the smoke from landing on your roof and starting a house fire.
  • It keeps out animals, leaves, twigs, and other debris that could clog up the flue and cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

Without a chimney cap, there is a greater risk that using your fireplace with spark a fire or expose you to the poisonous gas carbon monoxide.

Prevents Water Damage

Chimney-related moisture problems can cause thousands of dollars of damage. Rain, sleet, and snow can freely fall down your chimney if it doesn’t have a cap on top. This moisture might seem like a small problem, but over time, it can:

  • Create a breeding ground for mildew and toxic mold.
  • Warp, corrode, or damage the chimney flue liner, which prevents live embers and carbon monoxide from escaping through cracks or gaps in the mortar.
  • Weaken the chimney’s structural integrity saturating the chimney’s masonry leading to cracked and broken bricks and mortar. (This problem typically arises in chimneys with a missing or broken flue liner.)
  • Stain and rot nearby structural beams, walls, ceilings, and flooring that absorb excess moisture seeping out of the chimney’s masonry.

Repairing water damage is costly. In addition, using your fireplace can be hazardous if there is water damage inside the flue liner or masonry. You can avoid these risks by installing a chimney cap to keep moisture out.

Keep Pests Away

Many animals are attracted to the warmth and shelter that a chimney provides. That is why Wisconsin wildlife—raccoons, squirrels, rats, mice, bats, and birds—often make homes in chimneys. However, allowing critters to nest in your chimney can be dangerous for them and you. Animals can:

  • Damage the chimney’s interior.
  • Increase indoor air pollution by bringing in dust, dander, viruses, and bacteria.
  • Build nests that obstruct the flue choking off airflow, increasing the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or a chimney fire.

The metal mesh along the sides of a chimney cap keeps animals out. In addition to preventing these pest problems, it protects animals from the danger of getting stuck and starving or asphyxiating inside a chimney system.

installing a full-width chimney cap, kenosha wiLower Your Utility Bills

Is the room with your fireplace drafty? Hot or cold gusts of wind blowing into your home through the fireplace is a common problem. It forces your HV/AC system to work overtime.

Battling drafts drives up your energy bills. A chimney cap can reduce your utility bills because it acts as a windbreak. Along with your damper, it can improve your home’s energy efficiency.

If you want to protect your home from water damage, pest problems, fire hazards and high utility bills consider installing a chimney cap! It is an inexpensive, one-time investment that can last for more than a decade. The NFI-certified chimney technicians at Burlington Fireplace and Solar can help you find and install a chimney cap to protect you and your home. Give us a call to find the best chimney cap and learn more about the installation process led by our highly trained chimney service specialists!

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