Rant: A brick chimney in my town went from solid to cracked in under a year

I did a standard sweep and inspection on a 1920s chimney in the old part of town about 10 months ago. It was in good shape, just needed a cleaning. I got called back last week because the owner smelled a weird draft. The whole crown had a hairline crack running almost all the way across, and the mortar on the south side was starting to crumble. The only thing that changed was they had a new high-efficiency furnace installed six months ago. I'm thinking the lower flue temps from that furnace caused way more condensation than the old brick could handle, speeding up the freeze-thaw damage. But the HVAC guy swears his install had nothing to do with it. Has anyone else seen a modern heating swap wreck an old chimney this fast?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlesschmidt2h ago

Get a liner installed before next winter, those new furnaces are murder on old brick.

evan_grant705h ago

That's so frustrating when you know you did a solid inspection. Seen similar things happen with those furnace swaps, for sure.

joseph_green133h ago

Yeah, I was reading a thread last week about a guy who had his whole furnace replaced, and they missed a cracked heat exchanger. The inspector caught it, but the install crew just said it was fine. Had to get the whole thing redone. Makes you wonder if some crews are just rushing to hit their numbers.