Creative Chimney Caps
Sunday, January 20th, 2008In this field we see some creative (and scary) work done by “do-it-yourself” homeowners. One part of the house that seems to get more than its share of crazy solutions is the chimney. When people have animals in their chimney they will try just about anything to get them out and/or keep them out. We see people light fires under animals, dump ammonia into their fireplaces and even install chimney caps while 4 or 5 raccoons are still inside the chimney. Yes we get called out to some pretty “interesting” situations, that’s for sure. I was going through some old pictures this cold, windy afternoon and found 3 chimney pictures that I thought i’d share.
This is obviously a bad idea. This is actually a commercial building next to a sub shop. I was parked in my truck one day eating lunch when I noticed this chimney.
The funny thing about this cap was that it seemed to be installed correctly. The bolts were tight and there was plenty of sealant used to hold the cap on. I’m not sure why the homeowner decided that it needed a rock on top of it.
And the winner of the best chimney solution award of 2007 is……
This is a very, very bad idea. This homeowner had an adult female raccoon and 4 juveniles living inside his fireplace. Then just before dark when he thought the female had left he went on the roof and covered his entire chimney with a tarp as shown above. The female raccoon then exited the chimney about 30 minutes later and tore a big hole in the tarp (other side of chimney). The hole that the raccoon tore probably saved this guy’s life. If the chimney would have remained covered the house would have filled with carbon monoxide from the furnace. A deadly situation.
That wraps up todays article on “how not to cap a chimney”. Hope you enjoyed it.
Matt Grady