The chimney is where a coastal roof leaks first

• Step flashing

  Individual L-shaped metal pieces, one per shingle course, woven up the two sides of the chimney where it runs with the slope. Each piece laps the one below it so water stepping down the roof is always handed off to metal, never to a bead of sealant. A single continuous strip of metal in place of steps is one of the most common failures we find on an older chimney.

• Counter-flashing

  The second layer, cut into a mortar joint on the chimney face and bent down over the top of the step flashing. It covers the vertical legs of the steps so water running down the brick cannot get behind them. Counter-flashing that was surface-nailed to the brick instead of let into a reglet joint is a leak waiting on the next hard rain.

• Apron flashing

  The wide piece across the downhill face of the chimney, sometimes called head or base flashing. It takes everything the roof above sends down the two sides and moves it out onto the shingles. It is short, simple, and the piece most often reused when someone reroofs cheaply around a chimney rather than replacing it.

• Back pan and cricket

  On the uphill side, the roof pushes water straight into the chimney. A small chimney can sometimes be handled with a back pan. A wide one needs a cricket, a framed saddle that splits the water and sends it around both sides instead of letting it pond against the brick.

• Boots, collars, and the metal-roof version

  On a metal roof the same job gets solved differently. Panel ribs mean flat step flashing does not lie down the way it does on shingles, so the chimney gets a formed pan, a hemmed counter-flashing, and boots or collars at any pipe near it. A chimney detail copied off a shingle roof onto a metal one is a detail that will move with the panels and open up.

We will tell you which one your roof is in, including when the answer is the cheaper one. A reflash we can stand behind is worth more to us than a replacement you did not need. See repair vs. replace for how we work that decision on the whole roof.

Why does my roof leak around the chimney?

Because a chimney is a hole cut through the roof, and every hole through a roof has to be closed with metal rather than with the roof covering itself. The chimney is usually the largest interruption on the whole plane, it sits in the path of everything running down the slope above it, and it is built out of masonry that moves and weathers at a different rate than the roof around it. Add a detail that was sealed with caulk instead of flashed correctly, and the chimney becomes the first place the roof gives up water.

What is a roof cricket, and does my chimney need one?

A cricket, sometimes called a saddle, is a small framed peak built on the uphill side of a chimney so water splits and runs around both sides instead of piling against the brick. The model residential code language most Alabama jurisdictions build from calls for one when the chimney dimension parallel to the ridge is more than 30 inches and the chimney does not intersect the ridge. Which edition your municipality has adopted, and what local amendments apply, is something we confirm for your address before quoting rather than answering with a blanket rule.

Can chimney flashing be replaced without replacing the whole roof?

Often, yes. Reflashing a chimney means lifting the surrounding shingles, removing the old metal, replacing any bad decking, weaving in new step flashing, cutting fresh counter-flashing into the mortar, and closing it back up. That is a contained repair on a roof that otherwise has life left in it. What makes it not worth doing is a roof already failing in several other places, or shingles too brittle to lift without breaking, and an inspection is what tells the two situations apart.

How much does chimney flashing repair cost?

We do not publish a number for it, because the honest range is too wide to mean anything on a web page. The size of the chimney, whether it needs a cricket framed, how much decking is soft once the metal comes off, the pitch, and whether the roof is shingle or metal all move it. A free on-site look tells you what your chimney actually needs, and the estimate comes off that rather than off an average.

Is chimney flashing damage covered by a storm insurance claim?

It depends on whether the damage traces to a covered event rather than to age or wear. Wind that lifts or peels flashing, or hail that dents and splits it, is storm damage. Counter-flashing that has been sitting in a mortar joint quietly failing for a decade is deterioration, and policies treat those two very differently. We document what we find either way, so what goes to your adjuster is photographs and a written condition assessment rather than an assertion.

Do you install chimney caps?

Flashing is roofing scope and squarely ours. A chimney cap, the lid over the flue, and crown or masonry repair sit on the line between roofing and chimney trades. Cap work often gets handled while the roof work is happening, so ask us about yours and we will tell you straight whether it belongs to us, to a mason, or to a chimney sweep. What we will not do is quote a trade we should not be quoting.