PSA: I had a chimney cap fail on me during a heavy rain in Tacoma

I was finishing a sweep on a two story colonial last fall when a sudden storm rolled in. The homeowner's old stainless steel cap, which I had noted looked fine, completely clogged with wet leaves in under twenty minutes. Water started backing up and dripping into the firebox. I had to go back up on the roof in the rain, pull the soaked mass out by hand, and advise an immediate upgrade to a heavier gauge model with a different mesh design. Has anyone else had a supposedly good cap fail like that in bad weather?

3 comments

3 Comments

hunt.hayden17d ago

Honestly... that sounds more like a freak accident than a real design flaw. A sudden storm plus a ton of wet leaves at once is a pretty rare combo. Most decent caps handle normal rain just fine for years. Maybe it was just that one bad spot with all the trees.

abby_fisher17d ago

Guess I'm the freak accident then, @hunt.hayden. My old cap failed with just a normal autumn drizzle and a few soggy leaves. Maybe I just have terrible luck with gutters.

mila_murphy17d ago

But what if it's not a freak accident? I've seen a few of those "fine looking" caps fail the same way. They use a cheap, wide mesh that's basically a leaf basket waiting to happen. A normal rain with wet maple leaves is all it takes to plug it up solid. That design is a known weak spot, not just bad luck.