Michael Thomas
05-29-2009, 02:28 PM
Three-story condo, the unit in question is a first floor unit duplexed down into a garden apartment - looks to me like was perhaps originally designed as an in-law setup, there are units on the second and third floor above, and a fireplace in each unit (except the garden apartment). I've not been able to identify their relative positions at the top of the chimney
Whenever there's a hard rain there is water at the ceiling in the garden apartment directly below the first floor fireplace, in IR there's an almost perfectly circular drip pattern directly below the fireplace, and a few feet from over from that an irregular linear area of moisture that crosses several truss spaces and appears aligned with the outer edge the hearth extension (the three vertical objects are track lights.)
At the chimney top the cap is fairly flat and there are various small sealant failures where the vent pipes pass through it, per the owners when there's heavy rain and you are standing in the first floor living room beside the fireplace you can hear a steady drip from somewhere in or near the fireplace, however I could detect no evidence of excessive moisture anywhere within the firebox or at the exterior of its enclosure - my assumption is the water is dripping down the outside of the vent pipe and fireplace and making its way down to the ceiling below..
Anyway, up at the chimney cap (as you can see in the pictures) it appears to me that someone had originally installed storm collars and sealed them to the vent pipe (at an angle ???), and then (I would presume because there was leaking) pushed them up as far as they could below the terminations and then attempted to re-seal the vent pipes to the cap.
My question is: what is the correct way to achieve a durable seal between the vent pipe and the cap, and where will I find this documented?
Whenever there's a hard rain there is water at the ceiling in the garden apartment directly below the first floor fireplace, in IR there's an almost perfectly circular drip pattern directly below the fireplace, and a few feet from over from that an irregular linear area of moisture that crosses several truss spaces and appears aligned with the outer edge the hearth extension (the three vertical objects are track lights.)
At the chimney top the cap is fairly flat and there are various small sealant failures where the vent pipes pass through it, per the owners when there's heavy rain and you are standing in the first floor living room beside the fireplace you can hear a steady drip from somewhere in or near the fireplace, however I could detect no evidence of excessive moisture anywhere within the firebox or at the exterior of its enclosure - my assumption is the water is dripping down the outside of the vent pipe and fireplace and making its way down to the ceiling below..
Anyway, up at the chimney cap (as you can see in the pictures) it appears to me that someone had originally installed storm collars and sealed them to the vent pipe (at an angle ???), and then (I would presume because there was leaking) pushed them up as far as they could below the terminations and then attempted to re-seal the vent pipes to the cap.
My question is: what is the correct way to achieve a durable seal between the vent pipe and the cap, and where will I find this documented?