Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterMortar Repointing in Flushing, NY
Mortar repointing is the process of removing deteriorated mortar from the joints between your chimney’s masonry units and packing them with fresh mortar – restoring the waterproof seal that keeps water, cold air, and freeze-thaw damage from working through your brick. In Flushing, most chimneys we inspect show joint erosion well before the homeowner has noticed anything wrong. Catching it at the repointing stage, before the bricks themselves start to crack or shift, is almost always the difference between a repair that costs a few hundred dollars and a rebuild that costs several thousand.
Hearthstone Chimney Co. has been doing this work in Queens since 1984 – over 42 years of climbing onto Flushing rooftops, reading what the mortar is telling us, and putting it right with professional-grade materials. Russell Haines leads every aspect of our Chimney Repair services, and if you want a straight answer about the condition of your chimney’s joints, call us at (516) 206-6672. A live person will answer, day or night.
Mortar repointing falls under the broader category of masonry repair. You can read more about the full scope of what we do on our Chimney Repair in Flushing page, or visit our home page to see the complete range of services we offer.
When You Need Mortar Repointing
Mortar joints that are doing their job are flush with the face of the brick and free of cracks. When they’re not, the chimney is absorbing water it should be shedding. Here are the signs we see most often on Flushing homes – and what each one usually means:
- Mortar joints that look recessed or scooped out. When you run a key or a screwdriver along a joint and it crumbles or sinks in more than about a quarter inch, the mortar has eroded past the point where it’s protecting the brick. This is the most common finding on Flushing chimneys built in the 1940s through 1970s, when the original mortar mix was softer and has simply worn out.
- White staining (efflorescence) on the outside of the chimney. Those chalky white streaks are mineral salts being pushed out through the brick by water moving through failing joints. In Flushing, where winters run wet and freeze-thaw cycles hit hard from December through March, efflorescence is an early warning sign we take seriously.
- Cracked or missing mortar in one or more horizontal (bed) joints. Horizontal joints take the brunt of the weather because they collect standing water. A crack even a millimeter wide is wide enough to let water in, and that water expands when it freezes.
- Damp spots or staining on the interior wall or ceiling near the fireplace. If moisture is finding its way through the chimney structure and into your living space, the joints are almost certainly part of the problem – though we’ll do a full inspection to confirm nothing else is compromised.
- Spalling bricks. When brick faces are flaking or popping off in pieces, water has already been cycling through the masonry for some time. Spalling is downstream of joint failure – repointing now stops the cycle from advancing further.
- A chimney that hasn’t been inspected in more than five years. In Flushing’s climate, five years without a look is long enough for mortar erosion to go from minor to significant, especially on chimneys that face north or are shaded and stay damp longer after rain.
Our Mortar Repointing Process
We don’t wing it and we don’t rush it. Repointing done incorrectly – wrong mortar mix, shallow prep, or joints packed in cold weather – fails faster than what it replaced. Here is exactly how we approach the job:
- Level-2 camera inspection and photo documentation before we touch a thing. Every job starts with a documented look at the full chimney system – joints, crown, flashing, liner, and firebox. We take photos you can see on the spot, and Russell Haines or one of our senior technicians gives you a plain-English verdict: what’s failing, what’s holding, and what the repair involves. You never pay for work you don’t understand.
- Joint preparation by mechanical removal to the correct depth. We grind or hand-chisel deteriorated mortar back to a minimum depth of three-quarters of an inch – often deeper on older Flushing chimneys where the original mix has softened all the way through. This step cannot be skipped. New mortar packed over a shallow, dusty joint will not bond and will fail within a season or two. We remove all loose material and blow out the joint before mixing a single bucket.
- Mortar mix matched to the existing masonry. This is where a lot of contractors get it wrong. Modern Portland-heavy mortars are too hard for the softer brick used in many pre-war and mid-century Flushing homes. A mortar that’s stronger than the brick will force any movement stress into the brick face itself, causing spalling. We assess the age and type of your masonry and match the mortar composition accordingly – lime content, compressive strength, and color.
- Repointing in lifts, tooled to match the original joint profile. We pack the mortar in layers on deep joints rather than in one thick pass, which prevents shrinkage cracking as it cures. Once the mortar reaches the right firmness, we tool the joint to the original profile – usually a concave or weathered finish on Flushing’s older brick chimneys – so water runs off rather than pooling.
- Crown and cap check before we come down. Since we’re up there, we always check the chimney crown and cap condition and flag anything that would undermine the repointing work. A cracked crown lets water pour straight onto freshly pointed joints. We’ll tell you what we see, with photos, before we leave the roof.
- Final walkthrough and written record. We show you the before-and-after photos, explain what we did and why, and hand you the paperwork for your 90-Day Done Right Promise. If anything about the repointing isn’t right within 90 days, we come back and make it right – no paperwork shuffle, no arguing.
Mortar Repointing Pricing in Flushing
Mortar repointing in Flushing, NY typically runs between $300 and $1,800 for a standard residential chimney, with most single-story or two-story homes landing somewhere between $400 and $900. The range is wide because the variables are real: how many linear feet of joint need work, how deep the deterioration goes, the height and access difficulty of the chimney, and whether the crown or cap needs attention at the same time.
| Scope of Work | Typical Price Range (Flushing) |
|---|---|
| Spot repointing – isolated joint failure, 1 to 3 areas | $300 – $500 |
| Partial repointing – one or two sides of chimney | $500 – $850 |
| Full repointing – all four sides, standard two-story chimney | $850 – $1,400 |
| Full repointing with crown repair | $1,100 – $1,800 |
A few things that move the number up: chimneys above three stories require additional staging or lift equipment, which adds to labor time. Severely eroded joints that need to be chiseled back more than an inch and a half take longer to prep and longer to fill in lifts. And in certain parts of Flushing – particularly on larger Colonial and Tudor homes in areas like Auburndale and Broadway-Flushing – chimneys are taller and more complex than average, which adds scope.
What doesn’t change is how we price: the number on the estimate is the number on the invoice. We give you the full figure up front, before any work begins, and we don’t add line items after the fact. If you’re comparing quotes and have a written estimate from another contractor, bring it to us – we offer a free second opinion on any written estimate.
We also carry a standing offer: $50 off any repair over $250, and a permanent 5% discount for seniors and veterans. Call (516) 206-6672 for a free estimate – we’ll give you a straight answer about what your chimney needs and what it will cost.
Why Flushing Chimneys Need Repointing More Often Than Homeowners Expect
Flushing sits in a part of Queens where the weather is hard on masonry. The neighborhood gets roughly 47 inches of rain a year, winters cycle repeatedly above and below freezing from late November through early March, and the wind off Flushing Bay drives moisture into north- and east-facing chimney faces with real persistence. On a chimney that was built in 1955 with the softer lime mortars common to that era, that’s seventy years of wet-freeze-thaw working on every joint.
We also see a specific pattern in Flushing’s older neighborhoods: chimneys that were pointed in the 1980s or 1990s with a modern Type S or Type N Portland mortar that was too hard for the original softer brick. Those repairs look fine for years, then the brick face starts to spall because all the stress from thermal movement is being absorbed by the brick rather than the joint. When we repoint those chimneys now, we’re not just replacing mortar – we’re correcting the mix specification so the repair works with the masonry rather than against it.
In Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok, and the Murray Hill section of Flushing, we regularly find chimneys on postwar brick ranches where the top four to six courses of brick have been soaking up water for years through failed crown and joint combinations. The crown cracks first, water gets behind the flashing, and by the time the homeowner sees a damp spot inside, the joints on the upper chimney section have been cycling wet and dry for a decade. Repointing those upper courses, combined with a crown repair, is usually enough to stop the problem entirely – if it’s caught before the brick itself begins to deteriorate.
This is why we document every inspection with photos. Russell Haines has been reading Flushing chimneys for decades, and a photo that shows you exactly where the joint erosion starts and how far it extends is worth more than any amount of verbal description. You can see what we see, and you can decide with full information.
Materials We Use
We don’t use builder-grade supplies. For repointing work, we draw on professional-grade products from Olympia Chimney and Gelco, two manufacturers whose materials are formulated specifically for chimney masonry rather than general construction use. The mortar additives, bonding agents, and pre-blended mixes we use are designed to handle the thermal cycling that a chimney faces – expanding and contracting with heat from the flue and cold from the weather – without cracking out of the joint.
For chimneys where the flue liner also needs attention alongside the repointing, we use HeatShield and DuraFlex products that are matched to the liner repair scope. We don’t mix and match mortar from the hardware store with professional-grade work. The job is only as good as the materials holding it together.
The 90-Day Done Right Promise
Every repointing job we complete in Flushing is backed by the 90-Day Done Right Promise – in writing, no arguing. If the work isn’t holding the way it should within 90 days, we come back and make it right. That’s not a marketing line. It’s a term we put on paper because we’re confident in how we do the work, and because we’ve been in Flushing long enough to know that our reputation follows us around.
A company that has been answering phones since 1984 and intends to be here in thirty more years does not cut corners on a repointing job. The 90-Day Done Right Promise is the written expression of that position.
FAQs – Mortar Repointing in Flushing
How much does mortar repointing cost in Flushing, NY?
Mortar repointing in Flushing typically costs between $300 and $1,800 for a standard residential chimney, depending on how much of the chimney needs work, the depth of the deterioration, and the height and access complexity of the structure. Spot repairs on isolated joint sections usually run $300 to $500. A full four-sided repoint on a two-story chimney runs $850 to $1,400, and adding a crown repair at the same time generally brings the total to between $1,100 and $1,800. Call (516) 206-6672 for a free estimate – we’ll come out, document what we see, and give you a firm number before any work begins.
How do I know if my chimney needs repointing or a full rebuild?
Repointing is the right repair when the bricks themselves are structurally sound and only the mortar joints are failing. A rebuild becomes necessary when the bricks are cracked, badly spalled, or shifting out of alignment – meaning the masonry units themselves have been compromised, not just the material between them. Our Level-2 inspection with photos gives you a definitive answer before you spend money on either. In our experience across Flushing, the majority of chimneys that homeowners assume need a rebuild actually need repointing plus a crown repair – a meaningfully smaller expense.
Can mortar repointing be done in winter in Flushing?
Mortar repointing in cold weather requires specific precautions. Fresh mortar needs to cure above freezing – typically above 40 degrees Fahrenheit – for at least 24 to 48 hours after application. In Flushing’s winters, that means we schedule repointing work carefully and do not pack mortar when overnight temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing before the joint has cured. If your chimney needs repointing urgently in winter and conditions won’t allow it, we’ll tell you honestly, document the damage, and schedule the repair for the first window when conditions are right. We don’t rush a mortar job just to get it done.
Is repointing something a homeowner can do themselves?
Small, ground-level repointing on a garden wall or a low foundation section is within reach for a careful DIYer. Chimney repointing is a different matter. The work is done at height, on a sloped or flat roof, often on a chimney that extends well above the roofline – and the consequences of a fall are severe. Beyond the safety issue, chimney repointing requires the correct mortar specification matched to the age and type of your masonry, proper joint preparation depth, and tooling that matches the original profile. Using the wrong mortar mix on an older Flushing chimney can cause brick spalling that turns a $700 repointing job into a $4,000 brick replacement. We strongly recommend leaving chimney repointing to a trained professional.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Flushing since 1984.