Walked into a 200-year-old house in Vermont and saw a chimney crown made out of field stones

The homeowner said it's been like that since the 1800s and never had a single leak, so why are we spending all this time on fancy cement crowns when rocks and mortar clearly work just fine? Has anyone else run into old school chimney work that makes you question modern methods?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_gonzalez611d ago

so are you saying the modern chimney crowns are just a money grab from contractors, or is there an actual reason we switched to cement? i mean, field stones held together with mortar for 200 years without a leak sounds pretty solid to me. maybe the old timers knew something we forgot about mixing the right mortar or letting it cure properly. have you looked into what kind of mortar they used back then, like lime based vs portland? i bet that makes a huge difference in how it holds up over time.

fiona_scott441d ago

Start by saying you've seen WAY more cement crowns crack and fail than old stone ones. Honestly @holly_gonzalez61, I think it's mostly about speed and money now. Lime mortar is softer and lets things flex, but Portland cement is just cheaper and faster for contractors to slap on.